Starting Over
by Slywyn
Summary: Victoria works a dead-end job in The City, a desk clerk for JojaCorp. One day she reaches into a drawer and finds an old folder- the deed to a farm in a place called Stardew Valley, and a letter from dear departed Grandpa. She decides to leave her life behind and start anew, just like he did so long ago. Please leave reviews if you're liking the story, they're very encouraging.
1. Gifts Given, And Remembered

[Author's Note: Things won't be _exactly_ as they are in the game. I'll be adding a few personal touches. But given that it's officially a fantasy setting, and since I got a request from a friend... well, you'll see when we get there. Just keep the thought that I'll be crafting my own story out of what little we were given as you read.]

Everyone has a particular moment. That moment where they're sitting alone and wondering what they're doing with their life. That moment when you look at a clock, check the time, and realize that it's still far too early in the day for you to be this tired. When you come to the understanding that you're not fulfilling what your family hoped for you. When your life feels empty, and that emptiness is growing with every passing day.

For Victoria, this moment came at 3:21pm, Ferngill Republic Central Time, on the 26th of Winter. The celebrations of the 25th had come and gone, and what had she done? Worked. Like she'd done almost every day this year. She got vacation days, perks of having worked at the same job for three years, but her supervisor always _"suggested"_ that she turn them in for G instead. It worked out for the most part, she earned a little extra money every month, but she never got to leave The City. Or her job, working for Joja Corp. It paid the bills. Her little car and her tiny apartment. The food in her fridge, most of it something she could toss in the microwave and heat up, or sliced meat to make sandwiches.

She wasn't sure which was worse though. Her empty apartment, or her empty job here. She'd tried to get a cat once, a little thing she'd named Tiny because the guy at the pet store had said he was the runt of the litter. But he'd run away or been stolen, she wasn't sure which, one day while she was here at work. His bowl still sat in the corner of her bedroom, her little shrine and the last hope she held that maybe he'd come back one day.

It'd been at least a year since she'd been on a date. She barely bothered to shave her legs anymore. It was just too much effort. The only places she went, aside from the little City Park for her runs, was here at work, or her apartment. Not many choices there, and she honestly wasn't looking too hard to begin with. It was too much effort. Everything was. But she supposed that's what being down like this did to you, made your easy life feel empty, an actually okay job feel like a cage.

Victoria looked up at the clock. 3:21. Hadn't it said 3pm over an hour ago? It sure felt like it. Time crawled here in her dingy little office. Sure, it paid okay, and the benefits were nice, but she hated the work. Tapping away at a keyboard for hours on end, ensuring that every little crate of JojaMart™ merchandise got to the correct store on time and with as efficient a route as possible. It was boring. Once you got the path figured out, as long as you kept up with traffic you'd never send a truck wrong.

Even a war couldn't stop JojaCorp. Gotoro Empire or no, she got those trucks through every single day. It was like a machine, where she was just one little unhappy cog in an otherwise unfeeling clockwork.

She hated this job, but it was the only thing she'd ever known. She'd started in a JojaMart, just a clerk working the counter like everyone else, trying to work her way through school. Then she'd gotten depressed and dropped out, and somehow that'd gotten her promoted. A store manager first, and then a desk jockey in the office a few years later. Most people would die for her position, barely 24 and already working a cushy office job? Thing is, she was worried this job was going to kill her.

Maybe not actually kill her. Though the depression might. This job certainly didn't help. She had her own cubicle, sure. Her own computer, her own desk. But it was dingy, and cold most days. The light above her flickered, the walls exuded a smell that she was sure wasn't healthy, and she knew that at least one person had died in this office. It was a week before anyone had noticed. Maybe the job wasn't so okay after all. She didn't want to be a body found in a damp chair because nobody bothered to check.

 _That could be me._

She was too young to feel this empty. Some would say too pretty, but she didn't really feel like it. Sure, she was somewhat thin. Eating like she did had something to do with it. But she liked to think she was wiry, not thin, and she did go for a run every Saturday morning. And apparently she had a decent face, if all the times she got asked out by all the guys in the office meant anything. But then again that could just be a combination of not being flat-chested and the general desperation that clung to everyone who worked here like a seeping fog. Unfortunately for them, and her, none of them really fit her tastes. She was practically the only woman in the building.

Her fingers tapped a pencil against her desk. She glanced up at the clock again. Still 3:21.

 _What am I doing here? I'm going nowhere... this job sucks, I don't have any friends, at least I don't have any bills._

Looking to the bright side really wasn't doing anything for her. It's hard to feel good when your 'bright' side is about as bright as a guttering candle in the wind of a dark night. A job she wasn't sure she'd ever advance from, a lack of friends that was probably as much her fault as anything else with how little effort she put into things like socializing. It was just hard to care when feelings seemed to vanish into a void located somewhere in your chest cavity.

It took a moment for her to realize there was someone standing next to her desk, but the little 'hem-hem' they kept making eventually got her attention. That could only be one person- Vincent.

"Excuse me, Ms. Finley, but I believe you were staring at the clock." Always with that smug tone, like he was going to ask you to do something you hated and there was nothing you could do about it. Him and his stupid suit, and his stupid tie, and his stupid haircut, like a bowl plastered to his head with hair gel. She wanted to know how many squirrels gave their life for that man's toupee...

"Sorry, Vincent. I guess I got distracted. All the trucks are sent out, everyone's on the way. There's not a whole lot else left for me to do until they start the pickup runs." She shrugged. Still tapping her pencil against the desk. She glanced at the clock again, 3:22. Was she stuck in some kind of time field or something? There's no way it could be this slow...

"Oh? Well, maybe..." He raised his coffee, taking a sip. "Maybe you could help out the phone lines? Just for a little while. You know, filter out some of the complaints."

"But I don't even have a phone." She'd been through this song and dance with him before, but at least it passed the time.

"You could use your cellphone! Just hook it up to the line under your desk, wear your headset." Another sip of his coffee. She knew it was half milk anyway, he just thought it made him look important. Smug, stuck up little-

"You know we're not allowed to do that. You yelled at me last week when Bob got here for doing exactly that." She'd never figure out why he thought it was fine to break the rules when his supervisor wasn't here, but as soon as Bob arrived everyone had to be following the rulebook to the letter. Well, she knew why, the rules were stupid, but he never took the blame for his own ideas. He just let everyone else get in trouble while he got to look like the put-upon shift lead that nobody listened to. Got him the sympathy he needed to get away with his own discretions. She'd seen the bottle in his desk. Water wasn't amber colored.

"Yeah, well... better get to it! Just help out the lines for a while. If you could just, you know, do that, that'd be greaaaat. I'll be back." He raised his coffee cup as he walked away, giving her that stupid smile. She'd love to break her stupid lopsided keyboard over his stupid face. But she couldn't even get riled up over it. Just like everything else, the anger trickled away into the void.

That sense of numb acceptance washed over her again as she resigned herself to looking for her headset. She didn't use it to send out the trucks, she just sent texts to all the drivers to check their email for one she'd written. They clicked a link on the computer in their cab, and a GPS program set up the route for them. All they had to do after that was follow it. The hardest part of her job was checking the traffic sites, since they were only online half the time because their servers were busted.

 _Now where the hell is my headset? It's around here somewhere..._

She dug through drawers, she looked under papers, she even checked the floor. She'd used it just last week, it couldn't have gotten far. She finally found it hiding under an old manilla envelope. While she was lifting that out of the way, a picture slid out- a young man standing in the middle of a lush field, corn as far as the eye could see. She must've never closed it last time she'd looked...

 _This is Grandpa's old farm, isn't it?_

She lifted the picture, lips pursed. What was that place's name again...? Stardrop? Sandstar? Something-star, definitely. She'd forgotten how beautiful it looked. The folder was old, she was still in High School when he'd left it to her, and she'd never really given it much thought other than taking the pictures out to look at now and again. What was a teenager going to do with a farm? She'd never looked at most of it, just the pictures. They helped her get away from this little cubicle on days where it all just felt like too much, when her life spiraled particularly badly out of her control... Hadn't he mentioned something like that?

 _Years ago, Grandpa sitting in bed, resting against his pillows. He was old, frail, thinner than she remembered him looking last. Getting sick tends to do that to you though. His beard, once majestic and full, clung to his face like strung-out cotton wadding, too little hair covering too much space. His nightgown hung off him like a shirt on the hanger, all bones and no meat hidden away by a thin layer of cloth. His voice, once deep and booming, commanding the attention and respect of everyone in the room, was thin and reedy, like a violin with a worn out bow._

 _"Vicky. Vicky, my dear. Come here. I can't see you." He beckoned her with a hand. He was so small now, his barrel chest looked like it'd sunken in on itself._

 _She'd been left for last. She thought perhaps he'd forgotten, or hadn't had anything left for his youngest grandchild. She was the only girl out of five grandkids, and the only child of dear Mom and Dad. He'd passed down her grandmother's wedding ring to her when she'd died a few years back, but usually she just got a few G for Christmas._

 _"You're still working at that Joja place, aren't you?", he finally asked when she'd stepped close enough to see. His eyes, cloudy and dim blue, looked old and faded, just like the pictures on the wall he still kept from the farm. When Vicky nodded, he continued. "I want to give you this."_

 _His hand, shaking, held out the folder for her to take. She never would have guessed what his gift for her was. "What is it, Grandpa? Is it pictures?"_

 _"There's a few in there. It's a deed." He pressed it into her hands, forcing her to take the folder and hold onto it, or let it drop._

 _"A deed? Like for a house?"_

 _"A house yes, and some land besides. My old farm." She could almost hear the bones in his arm creak as he turned, gesturing to the pictures on the wall. Two young men smiling in the sun, butterflies in the air behind them. A man and a woman, young and full both, standing before a tree with 'G + P' carved into a heart. A young man holding a massive pumpkin above his head in the fall, smiling like he couldn't ever be happier, a blue ribbon pinned to his chest._

 _"Your farm? We thought you sold it." She lifted the edge of the envelope, looking at the pictures inside. Fruits, mountains, what looked like a blacksmith with a plume of smoke rising from the chimney, a wooded shoreline to the Gem Sea._

 _"No, no. I always intended to give it to you." He laughed, quiet and wheezing. An accordion with a leak._

 _"Me? Why?" She glanced up to him after looking at the pictures, confusion written clearly on her face._

 _"Because, Vicky. I always knew you'd do great things one day. But you're not. You're working at JojaMart, while they strangle the towns and smaller stores under their iron fist." His voice hardened, just for a moment, some of his old bluster coming back. But then it was gone, like a stormcloud not quite formed. "I want you to have the farm. I want you to live there, just for a couple of years. See what life's like in the Valley. I know you will, one day. When your life is dragging you down, when the modern world becomes too much to handle, you'll want a way out... This can be your way out." He tapped the folder she held against her chest with one bony finger. "I trust you, Vicky. You'll do what's best for you."_

He'd died a few days later, the last gift he'd ever given her this old yellow folder. His farm. She lifted a sheet of paper, some paperwork she'd have to file when she arrived, it looked like. 'Stardew Valley' written across the top in an old-fashioned letterhead. That was the name. Stardew Valley, where the stars themselves rested when day came, their magic glistening in the dew that fed the plants. Some of the produce she routed came out of that valley, and it was always the best quality. Maybe Grandpa had been onto something after all.

She looked at the clock. 3:22. She slowly slid the paper back into the folder, her mind working over the details. She'd have to sell her apartment short notice. Or buy the rest of the lease. She had enough money, but it wouldn't leave her with much. She could drive there... but would her car survive the trip? She could get rid of it, get enough money to hold her over a few months while she settled in.

Fear rose in her chest... and stayed there. It was the first thing she'd really **felt** in months. The fear of the unknown, the fear of failure, the fear of starting a new life... But it was a feeling. She latched onto it like the light of a guiding star. Fear would guide her way, because it was the only thing she had.

Vincent walked by, shooting her an 'I'm watching you' look and gesture with his fingers. Still holding his coffee, still wearing that stupid suit. Well, he could have this job. She was done with it. She was leaving.

A hand on the folder, she stood from her desk. She punched the power button on her keyboard, the sound of her computer's fan spinning slowly dying. The folder clutched to her chest. Her Grandpa's gift. Her hands shook like his had, so many years ago. Fear felt good. It was better than being empty.

As she turned to leave, Vincent held his hands out, standing in her path with his palms up, questioning her. "Vicky! Where're you going? You have phones to answer!"

She brushed past him and turned as she backed through the door, her middle finger on her right hand stuck up proud into the air, her heart rising in her chest. She hadn't done anything this reckless in a long time. "Fuck you, Vincent. I'm going to Stardew Valley!", she shouted as she stepped through the door.

The last words she heard from the office were Vincent's 'where the hell is that?' as the door closed behind her.

She'd figured out what she was doing with her life.


	2. A Broken Bus and a Small Town

Panic. At the moment, Vicky felt like panic was a pretty good description of what she felt as she clutched her backpack to herself, sitting in an uncomfortable seat on the bus ride to Stardew Valley. The last few days had been a blur, getting out of her lease, selling her car to the first person who'd expressed interest, calling up someone named Lewis to inform him that she was taking possession of the farm. He'd sounded ecstatic, just glad that someone was finally going to come take care of 'the old place' as he'd put it. The way he'd expressed relief didn't exactly paint a favorable light on the way she thought of how Grandpa's old farm looked nowadays.

Getting out of her apartment had been more of a mess than she'd anticipated. She'd had to waive her deposit and pay off three months of her lease, leaving her with very little cash, some of which she'd had to spend on the bus ticket out here. Selling her car hadn't gotten her as much as she wanted either, and with having to buy luggage, lodging at a motel for a night while she waited for a bus to Stardew, food, as well as the other fees she'd have to pay when she arrived, it left her with very little to her name other than her backpack with a few books and clothes, and the larger bag she'd packed that currently resided under the bus in a storage compartment.

Some clothes, some pictures, a few knick knacks, and not much else were all that were accompanying her to the Valley. She'd gotten her hair trimmed, putting it into what was commonly referred to as a 'pixie' cut, something she thought would mean less personal maintenance while she worked on the farm, and it'd mean she wouldn't have to worry about keeping her hair out of her face while she was working. A black t-shirt with a pink heart on it, a pair of loose-ish jeans she'd found in a closet- the only pair of 'working' pants she actually owned, as well as a new pair of brown boots.

Lewis had advised her to buy boots rather than wear sneakers or something of the like, apparently the Valley was due for a thaw in the next day or so, and spring mud was 'like quicksand' according to him and would have sucked her sneakers right off her feet. She'd decided to trust him and spend a bit on a nice, quality pair of boots for her new home, rather than risk losing less-appropriate footwear. It'd placed her at exactly 500G for getting started on the farm, not counting what she'd have to pay for legal fees, which had lead to her current state of mild panic.

She'd looked up seed prices at Pierre's, the only store she was able to find information on in the town, only to find that the cheapest seeds were something like 20G. It left her very little to work with, and she'd have to find some way to make things work and stretch herself while plants grew. It might be a tight couple of months once she arrived, and she was starting to have second thoughts.

Grandpa's voice sprung to her mind unbidden though, reminding her of his last words. _I trust you, Vicky. You'll do what's best for you._

Clearly he thought she'd have what it takes to make it here. He wouldn't have left her the farm otherwise. He never did anything without a reason, always a plan or some kind of insurance making sure things would turn out his way. Until he got sick, anyway...

She tried not thinking about that anymore. She didn't need thoughts of Grandpa's final days on top of her urge to run as soon as she stepped off the bus. They were currently climbing through a series of mountains, and the bus driver had informed her that they'd arrive in the valley shortly. She was the last person here, everyone else having gotten off at Calico a few hours back. Apparently there was a casino or something in the town that they'd all been excited to visit, they kept mentioning someone named Mr. Qi.

The bus driver, a woman named Pam, seemed friendly enough, but somehow she reminded Vicky of some of her coworkers. She smelled slightly of alcohol and gave off an air of something being wrong with her, that sort of tired desperation that she knew all too well. Like someone strung out on too little life and hoping the line doesn't snap along the way. Despite that she was doing her best to make conversation, and had even invited Vicky to move closer to the front of the bus so they could chat.

Vicky had decided to keep mostly to herself, however, not wanting to distract the possibly-intoxicated driver from the road. It wasn't too treacherous, and didn't seem particularly steep or winding, definitely the sort built for a bus and truck traffic, but she still didn't want to die on a mountainside because her bus driver got distracted... maybe she shouldn't have sold her car after all. She'd told the driver a little about herself, how she'd up and left all of a sudden to come down here, where she'd worked, where she was going. Apparently her Grandfather had been pretty well-known in town, since Pam still appeared to remember him.

Another level was added to her panic as the bus began to make rather odd noises as they approached the bottom of the pass, sputtering and coughing, and she thought she could vaguely smell ozone or something very much like it... When they pulled into the bus stop it died altogether, the engine choking one last time before grinding to a halt with a rather pointed grinding noise. As Pam pulled herself out of her seat and off the bus, Vicky followed, still clutching her bag tightly to her chest. She definitely should have driven... maybe someone here would have bought her car off of her.

Vicky was left to pull her larger bag out from under the bus by herself, as Pam was near the back where she could see smoke rising out of the engine. She thanked Yoba that she'd made it to her destination before the bus died, though given that she'd been informed that was the only bus in and out of the area she was probably stuck for a while...

Waiting for her near the bus stop was a small old man wearing a brown hat and a pair of suspenders, a large bushy white mustache on his face, a green shirt and pair of worn boots finishing off his outfit. He stood with his thumbs hooked into his suspenders, a friendly smile on his face as he waved to the newcomer. "Welcome! Welcome, you must be Victoria." His voice was fairly deep, but with a charming sort of authoritative tone that took the edge off. It reminded her of her father for some reason.

"That's me, yep." She tried to sound less afraid and nervous than she was, but she wasn't entirely sure she was pulling it off. Late afternoon sun barely crested the mountains surrounding the valley, lending everything around a golden sheen. The air here smelled different, sweeter and cleaner, especially once a light breeze rolled through, blowing away the acrid scent of the failed bus engine. As the wind ruffled Vicky's shorter hair, she felt herself calm. Something about this area just seemed... right. It helped put her roiling stomach at ease.

"Great to meet you! My name's Lewis, we spoke on the phone." He held out a hand, taking her backpack from her hand to carry as he gestured for her to follow.

"That's right. You said you were an old friend of my Grandfather."

"I did! He was a good friend. I'll have to drink to his memory at the Saloon later. We're going to set you up at Pierre's for the night. They have an extra room you can sleep in."

"I can't sleep at the farm?" She didn't really want to impose on anyone, especially if it meant sleeping in the house of strangers. And... "Isn't Pierre's the general store here?"

"I see you've been doing your research! And no, unfortunately. It has to be cleared, the power restored, and the water turned back on. We can't send you to the old place without making sure something harmful hasn't moved in. It should all be ready tomorrow. Some of the people from town are clearing it out as we speak, and everything should be ready for you to move in bright and early tomorrow morning."

She knew the farm was probably in rough shape, but people from town having to physically clear the building? That just added yet another layer to her emotions, practically sending them into full revolt as she had to remind herself that she didn't have anywhere to return to in the city. She'd have to at least make some kind of go at it here before she could even attempt to return. "So I'm just sleeping in a spare room?"

"Actually there's a bit of a common area? Some of the women in town use it for aerobics on Tuesdays, and there's a shrine to Yoba in a connecting room. They'll have set up a little cot for you in the common area and you can bed down there for the night. You'll be meeting Pierre, his wife Caroline, and their daughter Abigail. She's about your age, I think?" He glanced back to Vicky with a smile, looking her over a few times.

"What?" He almost seemed like he was searching for something, the way he scanned her.

"Nothing. You just remind me of your Grandfather. I think you'll fit right in."

They were currently walking through a bit of woodland along a dirt track. The air here was cold but not quite frozen, and she could still see signs of Winter around here and there, snow drifted into melting banks. Behind her, the path seemed to disappear into the forest, and ahead she could see lights and a cobblestone road off in the distance. She'd spotted the town from her vantage point on the mountain road through the windows of the bus, right on the coast, a small sleepy hamlet separated from the rest of the world. She wondered if they even knew there was a war on.

A few minutes of walking saw them on the cobblestone road, a short distance outside of town. She could see people going about their business, and surprisingly a few of them sported oddly colored hair. She saw purple, green, even blue. She almost felt out of place with her dark black short cut, maybe she'd have to consider coloring it while she was here... As they stepped into town proper, some of the lights began to come on. A wooden sign hung on the front of a building, backlit by floodlights read 'Pierre's', and she could make out a neon sign reading 'Saloon' further off across a large paved area with a raised dais in the middle, probably the town square.

All the buildings seemed old, at least older than her, save a newer-looking blue building further south that appeared to be someone's house. Interestingly enough, she could just barely hear guitar being played off from that direction. The Saloon and Pierre's appeared to be the two older buildings in town though, judging by the wood cladding along their sides and the way their roofs were built. Maybe her architect studies weren't completely worthless after all...

"And here we are!" Cheerful as ever, Lewis stopped in front of Pierre's to hand her backpack back to her. He turned to gaze out over the town with a smile, placing his hands on her hips. "I still can't believe I'm the Mayor of this place sometimes, even though it's been twenty years."

"Twenty years? Wow." Her eyes went a little wide at the thought. She couldn't imagine having the same job for twenty years, much less running a town for that long.

"Yep. I guess I'm just doing something right. Nobody ever seems to run against me. Or maybe nobody else wants the responsibility." He glanced toward her with a shrug. "Anyway." He began to gesture toward buildings. "This is Pierre's, and just next door is the Clinic. Over there's the Saloon. Just to the left is Evelyn and George's house." He gestured to an old pale-blue building. "Back across the square is Emily and Haley's house, that peach building. To their right is Vincent, Jodi, and Sam. Their father Kent's off fighting in the war."

 _Seems like the war reached them after all. Even a place like this..._

She sighed internally as Lewis continued.

"The big manor over there is my house. Mayor's dwelling, with my own little office. I act a bit like the post office and tax collector and everything else here in town, so you'll probably see me quite a bit. I'll also pass by your farm in the morning, pick up anything you've managed to produce the day before." He glanced back toward her to make sure he hadn't lost her yet, then gestured back off east. "Across the river is the Library and Blacksmith", she could just see smoke rising from the forge, though there was another building...

"What's the blue building over there?" She gestured almost directly east from Pierre's, where most of the light she'd noticed from before seemed to be coming from. They even had a big neon sign like she knew from the city.

"Oh. That." His mouth drew down, smile all-but disappearing from his face as he turned back to look at it. "That's the JojaMart."

That made Vicky frown too. Even out here? Seems like even when she moved hours away to a tiny town in the countryside she just couldn't get away from them.

"They moved in a few years ago. Pelican Town's never really been the same ever since. The Community Center closed down, Pierre had to downsize. He used to have a staff. A few people work there, but we lost the hardware store, the grocer, the housing supplies store... all we have left is Pierre's and JojaMart." He let out a quiet little sigh, and it was the first time since she'd arrived that she'd seen him look genuinely somber and sad. "They just out price everyone else. The only reason Pierre's managed to stay open is customer loyalty, and he still sells seeds cheaper. Apparently they don't want the competition for their own produce sources."

He placed his thumbs in his suspenders again, pulling them out from his chest slightly as he gazed at the JojaMart, then out across Pelican Town. He almost seemed wistful, like he was lost in a happier past, and for the first time his face appeared genuinely drawn and weathered. He seemed to realize that Vicky was watching him, however, and his smile returned, though it seemed more forced than last time.

"Sorry. Just getting lost in the memories. Here, I'll introduce you to Pierre, and then I should get going so I can call the utility company before they close. They'll have everything turned on in the morning, and you should get internet in a couple of months once the run the cables."

"It doesn't have internet yet?"

"Well, your Grandfather lived here before all that existed, and he left without buying service." He offered her a knowing little smile. "I've already arranged to have it set up, free of charge, but it'll take a while. You'll survive." He winked, then turned and took a few steps to knock on the door to the store. "Pierre! She's here!"

The door pushed open a few moments later, revealing a man with bright blonde hair cut somewhat long, wearing thick-rimmed glasses. "Hey!" His voice was cheerful and friendly, wearing a thin leather jacket and a blue shirt beneath, with what looked like khaki pants and loafers. "My name's Pierre." He pushed out of the door and extended a hand, giving Vicky a firm and friendly shake. "You'll be staying with us tonight. Come on in!"

He held the door open for her, and even helped Vicky scoot her bag inside, before turning to Lewis. "I'll wake her up in the morning so you can come show her the farm, alright?"

Lewis nodded, and spoke a few more words to Pierre that Vicky didn't hear. She was currently taking in Pierre's store, the few shelves to the right, a few bins on the left, filled with produce, fruits, potatoes, among a few other things. It looked a little bit bare, but she imagined at least some of that was just how difficult it'd be to get fresh produce out here in the winter if it didn't come directly from the farms or a big warehouse freezer... When she turned back to Lewis, he'd already left, just leaving her here with Pierre.

"It's so nice to meet you.", he began, as he picked up her heavier bag and began to lead her back into the store, through a door into a hallway. To her left she could hear quiet videogame noises, like someone was playing an old-school shooter. "When Lewis told us that someone was finally coming to take over your Grandfather's old farm, I thought maybe he'd finally sold it to a produce company. I had no idea he'd died."

"Yeah, he left it to me a few years ago. Told me to come out here if life ever got too much for me." Vicky looked around, the room she found herself in had a few cushions for sitting on near the fireplace, two close together, one further away. She wondered whose was which. There was a larger room off in the corner that she could just see the edge of a pew through the doorway. On the other end of the room was what looked like a kitchen, judging by the tiles on the floor.

Pierre watched her for a moment through his glasses, and she could see some kind of understanding in his eyes, like he knew exactly what she was talking about. "I'm sorry."

She managed a smile, but she found it harder than she'd imagined. "Thanks. But, uh... Where am I going to be sleeping?"

"Right!" He turned away, the little moment broken as he gestured for an item folded up against the wall. "We had an old cot, so I told Lewis you could stay here tonight. Maybe not the most comfortable thing ever but it should serve. Elliott, Sam and Alex..." He stopped setting up the cot and glanced at her. "Some of the guys from here in town. They went out to the farm to make sure that nothing had moved in. They should be getting back soon." He finished setting up the cot as something beeped from within his pocket, and he pushed up his glasses and brushed some of his hair out of his face as he reached in to pull out an older-style flip phone. He scrunched his eyes for a moment to read it, and smiled. "Alex just texted me. Seems like it's all clear, so you're good to move in tomorrow when the power and water are back on."

Vicky nodded, setting her backpack down on the cot. He'd set it up against the wall on the far corner of the room, so she'd be far enough away from the other doors so hopefully she wouldn't be disturbed by people moving around in the night. "Do you have anything I could eat? I hate to ask, but I thought I'd be at the farm tonight and I could order something."

"Oh! No problem at all." He leaned toward the side, cupping a hand to his mouth. "Abigail! Hey! Can you get our guest something!?"

Vicky heared a muffled 'okaaaaaaaaay' from down the hall, then glanced to Pierre for an explanation.

"That's my daughter, Abigail. She'll come make you something."

"Oh, okay. Lewis told me about her. Said she was about my age. Are you sure she won't mind?"

"Oh, yeah. It'll be fine. Don't worry about it. So, uh, I'll leave you alone, she'll bring you some food in a bit. Don't worry about it, we have plenty. Just, uh... enjoy your night. Okay? And, oh!" He held up a hand as he turned to leave, pushing up his glasses again. "I sell seeds and things you'll need for the farm. Wallpaper, flooring, stuff like that. Cheaper than those JojaMart guys too. The seeds, anyway. I can't beat them on the other stuff." He frowned a bit, looking off to the side like he could see the Mart through the wall.

He glanced back to her after a moment and his eyebrows disappeared into the edge of his hair. "Sorry! I just... can't stand those guys." He let out a nervous laugh and waved, somewhat awkwardly, then simply turned and walked off toward what she figured was his bedroom.

Vicky sighed, then dropped down onto her cot with a creak of fabric. A hand on her chest helped stop the rapid fire beating of her heart, nerves starting to get the better of her again. Just a couple of days ago, she'd been laying in her own bed in The City, now she was sitting on a cot in a stranger's house, about to take possession of a farm she'd never seen, and start a new life as a farmer. Starting over from scratch.

Just like Grandpa wanted.


	3. Purple and Green

A new person poked her head around the corner of the doorway that Pierre had just disappeared into, a woman who appeared to be around his age with green hair. Vicky offered a wave after she'd managed to get her momentary attack of anxiety under control, and the woman let out a quiet little 'tsk' noise before slowly making her way over to say hello. She had a simple sort of dress on, blue with thin white stripes horizontally across the fabric, with a thin silver necklace around her neck, the dress turning into a white 'skirt' at the base that ended at her ankles. "Poor dear. You look like Abby after one of her trips."

"Huh?" It was all Vicky could think to say in response. The woman, she supposed Pierre's wife or girlfriend, had a maternal sort of voice, quiet and subdued. Probably didn't have a hard time yelling to get attention though.

"She goes off to the mountains once a week or so. She thinks I don't notice but I do." She set about gently adjusting Vicky's shirt and hair, motherly little touches across the distressed young woman, just keeping her hands busy. They were surprisingly calloused, as the woman apparently did more than fiddle around the house. Maybe she had a garden. "My name's Caroline, Pierre's wife and Abigail's mother. You must be Vicky."

"That's right. How does everyone...?"

"Lewis told us all about it last Friday while we were all at the Saloon. Almost everyone in town turns up to have a drink and mingle. You should try to make it, even if it's just to remind everyone you're still here." She gave Vicky a smile and sat back on her heels, placing her hands on her legs. "Your Grandfather was missed when he moved away. I was just a little girl when he left, but I still remember his laugh. What happened to him?"

"Some kind of wasting disease. I was too little to remember, and my parents don't like to talk about it. My mother took it particularly hard." She offered the woman a shrug.

Caroline responded with a gentle pat on Vicky's knee. "That's too bad, dear. He was a fixture around here until his health started to decline. I'm glad that someone's finally come to take care of the farm, it's laid quiet too long."

"Yeah. He told me something about when life got to be too much I should come live here, at least for a couple years..."

"Well, here's hoping you choose to stay. There's something special about that land and I'd hate to see it lay fallow again. He asked nobody touch it while he was gone. Did you want anything to eat?"

"Pierre said Abigail was going to make something?"

"Oh. She's probably playing her game." She leaned back and cupped a hand to her mouth. "Abby!" Yep, the woman could definitely yell. Not stern, just a reminder, though Vicky imagined she could be quite stiff when she wanted to. She gently rubbed at an ear as Caroline looked back with a smile. "Don't hesitate to come around if you have questions or need help. Or just want the company. Okay? Everyone's a friend of everyone in the Valley. Most people's doors are always open if you just knock."

"Alright. Thank you." Vicky sat back as Caroline nodded and walked off after standing, gently crossing her arms across her lap. She waited a few more minutes, wondering if 'Abby' had forgotten again thanks to her game, when she heard a door open. Head tilted slightly, she waited to see what Abigail looked like. Caroline had been pretty thin, bordering on reedy, though she'd had some strength to her hands, and definitely her voice...

She wasn't quite ready for the young woman who walked across the back of the room, rich purple hair easily visible even in the dimming light of the dying day. Her eyes went wide, and she was glad she was sitting in a darker corner, because she was sure her staring would be impolite. She'd certainly grown up healthy, that much was certain, and she was tall with a shapely frame. Soft, probably due to sitting and playing too many games, but there was just that hint of steel in the way she moved across the way, glancing back at Vicky just once before continuing on toward the kitchen. She looked... bored, and almost like looking at Vicky had offended her in some way.

"Holy fuck," Vicky whispered to herself quietly, just staring off as the woman had disappeared down the hallway to the kitchen. Did she look bad? Was her hair messed up? Had she said something wrong? No, that couldn't be it. Her mouth was open but it wasn't because she'd spoken...

Abigail sounded like she was heating something up in the microwave, judging by the noises coming from the kitchen, and Vicky settled in to wait. It'd suck if the first girl she met in this town who wasn't married hated her guts for some reason. It didn't take long for the woman to reappear, and Vicky got to have a better look as she walked closer. White tanktop under a dark blue overshirt, long purple hair mussed just enough for that 'I don't care about how I look but I actually care quite a lot' look, a black choker, purple nightpants that she could wear to bed, and black socks with little purple bats on them. Vicky had to quiet a breathed-out 'damn' as Abigail approached, not sure what to do or say.

She was offered a bowl with some sort of pasta in it, what looked like chunks of vegetable mixed in. "Thanks. Did I, uh... arrive at a bad time or something?", Vicky asked, trying to smile.

"What?" Abigail spoke, looking back at Vicky like she was seeing her for the first time after having her thoughts interrupted. Her eyes flicked from here to there, judging her looks, and apparently Vicky passed because she let out a sigh and crossed her arms, cocking out one of her hips just so as she breathed out a sigh. "Sorry. Mom and Dad are always getting me to cook or heat up food for guests. They're trying to get me more 'normal', I guess." She blew a strand of her hair out of her face with a little puff from her lips, and Vicky realized she was wearing lipstick. Her face followed the example her body set, somewhat round and soft but she still had a strong jawline. Classically beautiful. Handsome.

"Oh, that sounds like fun." Vicky laughed derisively, then took a bite of the food. She let out a quiet 'ack!' and had to swallow quickly. It was hot! What little taste she got was actually pretty good, but now she had to deal with a burnt tongue.

"Oh! Sorry, too hot?" Abigail actually looked somewhat concerned, leaning closer.

"No, it's awful. Worst thing ever, I bet you cooked it." Risky, but...

Abigail leaned back with a confused look, like she wasn't sure whether to be offended or laugh, her mouth formed into a sort of half smirk.

"That was a joke. It's just hot. It actually tastes pretty good. I think. I'll tell you once my tastebuds grow back."

The half-smirk turned into a full one, and Abigail walked off after a second or two toward the kitchen. For a moment Vicky half expected her to come back with a knife and a threat, but instead she returned with a chair that she placed against the wall, just far enough that she could- yep, lean back without risking tipping over. "That's some sense of humor you've got there."

"Yeah. Well... Gotta try for a laugh after accidentally burning yourself on food you didn't bother to test. Helps calm the embarrassment."

A quiet laugh met her as Abigail leaned back against the wall. "That's probably my bad, actually. I was frustrated and I guess I left it in too long. We just got a new one so we're not sure on all the settings yet."

"Well, you won't be sending it back for not working for a while. This is actually quite good. Did your mom make it?" Vicky asked before shoving another, cooler, bite into her mouth.

"I did, actually. I don't like their lessons, but I might as well learn if I'm going to get out of here on my own some day." Her tone and expression were both softening, relaxing as she got a bit more comfortable around Vicky.

"Oh. Well. It's good. And living alone isn't all it's cracked up to be." Vicky gestured with her fork toward her new potential friend. "I just left The City, had my own apartment, car, everything."

"What happened?" That sounded like genuine interest, and the raised eyebrow only confirmed it. Hook set, just have to reel...

"I worked at Joja. Boring job, routing trucks, nothing to get excited about. The daily grind got to me and I took up my Grandfather's offer. Sold my apartment, sold my car, grabbed the first bus out of town, three days ago."

"Three days? You gave up your life and moved away in three days? Damn." She let out a quiet laugh. "And here I am still living with my parents, going to school online."

"Hey, you should stay there. I tried school but, uh... You know, work, and stuff." She still didn't like to admit that she'd just given up when her depression really set in, and she had to remind herself not to frown. Got to keep up appearances, even in a new town. "What are you studying?"

"Just General Studies. What about you?"

"I went for Architecture. What I learned would tell me that this town is actually pretty old, though there are newer buildings. Not the most exciting thing, but I enjoyed it."

"Why'd you quit?"

Vicky's lips pursed as her jaw drew a little tighter. Should she...?

 _Ah, fuck it._

"Well... I'd just gotten a bigger schedule at work. Just a clerk at the time, ringing up people at the counter, swiping their stuff across the scanner. I started to fall behind on my studies, then..." She sighed quietly, not sure whether to fabricate or... nah, truth was probably best. "My girlfriend left me. Didn't want to date a failure falling behind in school working at a place like JojaMart. Everything kinda broke down after that. Dropped out of school, only thing I could care about was work. I got promoted, funnily enough. The manager there was leaving, and apparently I was 'dedicated', so I got his spot." She glanced toward Abigail, trying to judge her expression. "Sorry, I should stick to funnier topics."

"No! No, it's okay."

Vicky wasn't sure if it was just platitudes or if she was genuinely okay. Time would tell, most likely, as she stirred the pasta in her bowl.

"I get it. Getting dumped is harsh. I can see why you'd act like that.", Abigail offered quietly after a few minutes of silence while Vicky ate.

Vicky glanced over from above her bowl. Damn she was hungry, had she missed lunch? She couldn't remember. "Yeah? Been dumped?"

"Well... No. Sort of? Not really." She sighed and put her hands on her knees. "There's this guy in town-" _Damnit._ "Sebastian? I don't know if you've heard of him yet. He's Robin's son. The Carpenter. You'll probably meet her soon. He's, uh..." Vicky could hear the wistfulness in Abigail's voice. She was smitten, and Vicky could almost hear the whistle of the plane as it fell out of the sky. "Lives in the basement. Long dark hair, stays inside most of the time. Works on computers. He goes into Calico sometimes on his motorcycle, they have a bigger store there."

 _Long dark hair_ _ **and**_ _a motorcycle? I can't compete with that. 'I've got a farm. I grow plants and stuff.' Not nearly as cool._

"Anyway, he's always hanging out with Sam. They have a band. Kind of. Go by the river, smoke. I try to go with them sometimes but they usually walk off on their own. They play pool on Fridays."

 _AND he has a band, smokes, and plays pool? Holy shit, this guy's like out of a comic book or an action movie._

"Sounds like the real deal. Just not really hooked it seems like?"

Abigail nodded as she brushed her hair out of her face, her head hanging a bit. "I think he's trying to be nice most of the time. I even offered to play drums, but they keep saying they have someone else lined up. Is that sad?"

Vicky shrugged, tilting her head to the side a bit as she chewed on her latest bite. "Maybe he's just not ready. Doesn't like commitment or something. Afraid of relationships. Maybe he just doesn't like being alone. Who knows."

"Yeah..." Abigail trailed off after a moment, then shifted a bit in her seat, slowly lowering it back down into it's legs. "Anyway, uh, I can tell you about the people in town, who to look out for. If that'd help?"

"Sure! That'd be great."

Maybe half an hour later, Abigail had left, and Vicky had gone to put her bowl in the sink in the kitchen and return the chair to the table. She didn't want to wash it, not sure if the water pipes in the house were loud. She'd returned to her cot and faced the wall after laying down, pulling the blanket Pierre had left over herself.

 _Well, at least there's other girls in town. Don't want to get pushy if she's set on tall dark and handsome..._

She faded away with thoughts of her new home, what she'd been told of the people in town, though her mind kept coming back to her own version of tall, dark, and handsome that she'd just met...

It seemed like she'd barely laid down when someone was waking her up again, and she groggily pushed herself up out of her cot. "What? Huh? Was I snoring?"

"No, it's the morning." That sounded like Pierre, and as she turned around... yep. That was him.

"Morning? It's still dark..." She grumbled to herself, slowly pushing herself to a sitting position and started to put her shoes back on.

"Yeah. It's five-"

"Five! Damn..."

"Yep, five. We're going to go over to Lewis' place, he'll have you sign some paperwork, then come back here to get you started. Clint, the Blacksmith, dug some old tools out of a closet so you'll have something to work with. They're just cast iron, but they're dependable and they'll get you going alright."

Vicky nodded, rubbing at her eyes, and picked up her backpack. "It'll be nice to change and have a shower. Lead the way."

She moved to pick up her bag but he grabbed it for her before she could, and she was reminded of Abigail's 'they want me to be more 'normal' ' that she'd said last night. Even nice people have their little faults... Not that she wasn't thankful, the bag was heavy, but asking first would have been appreciated.

Pierre lead her over to Lewis's place once they'd left his store, and she'd had to suppress a giggle at the snoring coming from Abigail's room. She'd gotten Pierre to laugh once they'd left the store by suggesting he check her room for powertools once he got back. He talked to her a little about some of the people in town as he walked her toward the Mayor's manor, telling her about Clint, who many people had dubbed 'the grumpy blacksmith', and Willy, the 'salty sailor'. She'd need to know one if she wanted to ever upgrade her tools, and the other if she'd ever want to try her hand at fishing. He also told her a bit about what he sold at his store, various seeds and housing products, things like that.

When they arrived, Lewis was already awake and waiting for them, the papers and proper documents already drawn up. Vicky produced the relevant items from her manilla folder, proof of ownership transferred into her name among them, and then all she had to do was sign and hand over the cash for the appropriate fees. Pierre stood nearby while he waited, though it didn't take more than a few minutes. Then all three of them made their way back over to Pierre's shop around six after having breakfast in the Mayor's house, homemixed pancakes and maple syrup from one of the farms in the valley.

"So, my suggestion-", Pierre began, "Would be Parsnips for your first few harvests. Simple, easy to care for, hardy."

"And Clint dropped off tools at your farm last night.", Lewis added. "Robin, the Carpenter in town, installed a new drop box for you last Saturday. You place anything you produce over the day into that and I'll pick it up in the morning, while leaving payment for anything picked up the prior night in the box. I'll also leave any mail you might have when I do that. Sound good?"

Vicky nodded, then turned back to Pierre. "So how long am I looking? A few months at least?"

She was surprised when both men laughed. "Months? No! That's not how things work here. Parsnips will be ready in four days, and then you-"

"Four days!? But that's impossible!"

"Stardew Valley is a little different from places you might know. Crops grow fast here. Animals mature quicker. Sap runs from the trees more freely. Bees produce faster. Why do you think we grow the majority of the food Ferngill uses?"

She was completely astounded. She'd been expecting to have to survive for months on just what she'd brought with her. She had no idea she'd be producing vegetables so quickly. "Uh... then, um. How much will this get me?" She handed over her purse containing all the G to her name and let Pierre sift through it.

He counted quickly, then returned her purse and a handful of seed packets. "This. I even threw in an extra as a present. Just don't go too hard on yourself, okay? Pace yourself, you'll get better at things sooner or later."

She nodded, remembering to close her mouth, then headed out of the store with Lewis, still dumbfounded. "How come more people don't know about this? You'd think Joja would be knocking down the door of every place in town trying to buy up the whole area."

"They've tried. They bought a farm a few hours up the valley, started farming it, but whatever odd properties the place might've had dried up in a few weeks. They tried again a couple more times, same thing. When people were allowed to return and farm the land themselves, they were able to grow crops quickly again. Anyone who allies with Joja eventually pushes their land past the limit, and production drops off again. Nobody knows how it works, exactly, but the land doesn't seem to like Joja much." He shrugged after he finished talking, leading her slowly out of town.

They were going back the way they'd come from the bus stop. The only thing she remembered off in that direction was the forest... They passed the bus stop, bus still resting- apparently Pam hadn't managed to fix it- and continued deeper into the forest. "How far is it? All I can see is trees..."

"We're actually almost there. It's been a long time since your Grandfather left, and the land grows quickly, remember?" He tapped the side of his nose. "Keep this in mind while you're here. Take care of the land, and it will take care of you. Respect it, nurture it, and care for it."

They stepped through what appeared to be some kind of opening in the forest, and Vicky realized they were standing among old fences, a hollow in the land formed by cliffs on every side, absolutely filled with trees. "Wait... are we here?" She turned and peered past a few more trees, realizing there was an old cabin, as well as a large, new-looking wooden box with tool handles sticking out of it, as well as what seemed to be a freshly repaired mailbox at the porch. Her heart sank as she realized they were here, and the forest she'd seen yesterday was actually her farm, shrouded in the early morning mist.

 _What the fuck, Grandpa._

She turned to Lewis, and she guessed he could tell what she was thinking because he chuckled.

"He did stipulate in his will that the land was to be left alone after he left. Maybe he thought you'd return sooner and it wouldn't be so bad. Pace yourself, don't work too hard, and you'll clear it out before too long. Have a little faith in the land. It'll treat you alright." He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder as he turned to leave. "Maybe take some time off in a few days to go say hello to the other townsfolk. Some might stop by to save you the trip. Evelyn and George have an old bicycle they'll have Alex bring out here later today, it'll help you to get around town more quickly."

Vicky nodded, letting out a quiet little 'thanks', still staring at the farm. It all felt so overwhelming. The move, the people, the state of the land, the responsibility that now rested on her shoulders to provide everything for herself. She just wanted to find the nearest bed, flop into it, and cry.

Lewis walked off, leaving her alone in her farm.

"Today is going to suck.", she breathed to no one in particular.


	4. Dirt and Scale

[AN: This chapter contains the 'request' I mentioned at the start of the story. Hopefully I'll work it in well enough that not everyone will hate it! Hint: Instead of a cat or dog, we end up with a... well, you'll see.]

Vicky remained where she was, staring at the farm for a while, the sad state of the land, letting the feelings and thoughts wash over her. She didn't really want to move, but she knew that she'd have to eventually. After a few more minutes of wallowing in self-pity for the situation she put herself in, she realized that she was still carrying both her bags and they were starting to get quite heavy.

Using that as impetus to get moving again, she headed over toward the house, passing the drop box on the way to have a look inside. True to their word, the tools inside looked perfectly serviceable if a bit old, the handles perhaps needing some polish and sanding, but she'd brought sturdy gloves just in case, packed away in her duffel bag. The Mailbox had been freshly repaired and painted, the words "Finley Farm" in new stenciling on the side. That brought a smirk to her lips, injecting a needed bit of mirth. She'd never thought she'd see her last name on a farm, that was sure.

Lewis had given her a key after signing over the land to her officially, and she dropped her duffel bag with a worrying creak from the boards of the porch to pull it out of her pocket. The lock creaked audibly but clicked over with just a little effort, and she stepped inside after shoving the door open. The hinges protested but gave after just a couple shoves, and when shut the door behind her she could see the marks on the floor in the dust from where it'd been shoved open yesterday as well. Judging by the footprints she could see just from the entryway, they'd rather thoroughly checked before leaving, as she could see multiple paths scuffed through the fluffy film.

 _At least they did a good job checking the house for me. I should thank them when I get the chance._

She made her way toward what she assumed was her bedroom, judging by the large bed and the dresser against the wall, as well as what looked like a walk-in closet in the back of the room. The sheets on the bed looked new, or at least had been washed recently, which brought a smile to her lips. These people didn't even know her and they'd taken the time to replace the bedding so she'd have somewhere to sleep that wasn't dirty or disgusting. She had to wipe away a tear at their kindness, still feeling overwhelmed by everything.

 _Okay,_ she thought to herself in the silence of her new bedroom, _we need to get these seeds in the ground, then we can come back and clean the house. Get the plants growing first, start working on getting some income, then we can worry about comfort. Priorities._

She stepped back outside after retrieving her gloves and a straw sunhat from her bag, then headed over to the drop box to pick up the tools she might need. From what she could see, she had a hoe, a pickaxe, an axe, a large scythe- _I have no idea how to use this-_ and a rather large watering can. She'd have called it 'industrial size' if she hadn't seen just how big the farm was, and she knew she'd probably need it. She grabbed the hoe, the scythe, and the axe and set to work on the fields.

Vicky'd decided she'd just clear a patch large enough for the seeds she had right now and work on expanding the usable area over the coming days and weeks, but even that proved to be an effort of hours from the sheer tenacity of the plantlife she faced. She never would have considered herself out of shape, she'd eaten well enough and exercised every Saturday, but she was completely winded in short order, and had to take a break just a few hours in to catch her breath. She'd managed to clear a somewhat sizable chunk of land, and still didn't really know how to use the scythe, but she'd figured out 'sharp end cuts grass', and figured she'd learn the technique as she went.

Two trees were left standing, but she'd broken up a few rocks and tossed the remnants to the side, cut a fair amount of grass, and even decimated a few saplings with her axe. She'd started hoeing when she finally decided to take a break, drinking lukewarm tapwater out of a plastic glass she'd brought with her. No ice, and it wasn't cold, but it was doing the job despite tasting pretty awful. She'd also heard a few weird noises coming out of the forest, but chalked it up to the land being overgrown. Probably a rabbit or squirrel or something else distressed at her presence, it didn't sound big enough to be anything threatening or particularly frightening. Too bad she was wrong.

She returned to her chores a few minutes later, not wanting to get too comfortable sitting down, and had started hoeing the land again to try to till up something of a proper row to plant the seeds in. It wasn't pretty, or very straight, but she make things look better when she had a better understanding how to, and when she had the time and wasn't concerned with everything else she currently had to deal with. That was when she heard the noise again, like an odd rustling through the grass and tiny feet moving across the ground. She turned and stood, looking around herself, but didn't spot anything. "... hello?", she asked to the empty forest. Maybe she'd scare it out that way?

When she was met with silence, she shrugged and went back to her work, only to hear the rustling again, this time almost directly behind her. She whipped around again, trying to see it, only to see a rustle of the grass disappearing off into the trees. Confused and a little bit alarmed, she watched for a moment to see if she could spot whatever it was, to no avail.

Now a little worried, she decided there was nothing she could do for it but go back to work. She was nearly done, anyway.

A few more minutes of hoeing and she heard the noise again, right behind her once more. Deciding to ignore it for a moment, she instead tried to think of a way to surprise whatever it was, since it was apparently at least a little intelligent since it kept disappearing when she tried to get a look at it.

 _Maybe I can make it comfortable...?_

She began to whistle as she worked, though she was concentrating more on trying to listen to the weird rustling noises the thing was making. It was like... grass rubbing against grass, or leaves, plants rustling against each other, even though they were in the middle of the cleared area, and by the quiet cracking and rumbling of stones against one another and the little movements of dirt she could see out of the corner of her eye, it was doing something to the dirt...

After trying to pretend she wasn't paying attention for a minute or two, whistling some tune she'd heard on the radio, she whipped around with a loud "AHA!" and a pointed finger.

Greeting her sitting in the dirt was... she had no idea. Her brain seemed to refuse to categorize it for the moment. Four legs. A tail. Wings? A reptilian snout? Scales? Claws? Teeth? Eyes staring right back at hers? She was frozen, as the thing appeared to be, even as it held a... tiny rake?

She stared openly for a moment, her eyes looking it over as her poor overworked brain tried to figure out what the hell was she looking at. It was like a... very, very small dragon. Like she'd seen in movies.

Her mouth opened, and a few seconds later her brain caught up with her body as she started to scream. "HOLYSHITWHATTHEFUCKOHMYGOD"

She ran terrified into the house as a high-pitched screeching met her panicked response, the thing zipping off into the underbrush, leaving the tiny rake behind in the dirt as Vicky scurried away into the house, slamming the door open with her shoulder, as she dove for her backpack under the bed. Shaking fingers punched a few numbers into her phone, and before long she had Lewis on the line.

"LEWISOHMYGODWHATTHEFUCKTHERE'SATINYDRAGONTHING"

"Vicky!? Vicky, slow down. I can't understand you."

"There'satinylittledragononthefarmanditwaslookingatme."

"What? What's going on?"

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, running a hand over her face to try to gather her emotions in some way she could communicate more clearly.

"I was clearing the farm."

"Okay."

"I heard some weird noises."

"Okay."

"AND THEN I TURNED AROUND, AND THERE WAS A FUCKING TINY DRAGON."

"A what? A dragon? Okay, give me a moment."

Lewis went quiet on the other end of the line as Vicky did her level best to calm herself, taking deep breaths and trying to get her heart to stop racing before it exploded. She could hear typing and paper rustling, maybe the old Mayor consulting records on his computer and in his office. It was a minute or two as she stared at her door, which she'd left partway open, as she waited for him to find what he was looking for.

"Vicky?"

"Yeah?"

"I found an old farmer's journal. Gunther went through all the old stuff last year and scanned it or categorized it, he's the librarian in town, and I found something about a dragon."

"Okay. Then what's going on?"

"Apparently when Stardew was very young, a farmer reported seeing a little bitty dragon in his lake one day. He scared it off and it never showed up again. However, later in the journal, he reports someone else having seen something that looked like a bat flying above her fields in the daytime." She could hear paper rustling. "This was, uh... three years after the first sighting."

"Okay. And?"

"Vicky these records are over a hundred years old."

"What the fuck. Okay, so there's a really old, really small dragon flying around?"

"I don't know. Alex just left to be at your farm, he should be there in a few minutes. He's a strong lad, he can keep you safe."

"From a dragon?"

"You did say it was really small."

Vicky sighed, putting a hand against her face, trying to calm. "Okay. I'll stay inside and look for him."

"I'll gather some of the others and meet you down at the farm in a while. Okay?"

"Sounds goooood." She could hear her voice shaking a bit, but she supposed there was nothing she could do for it right now. She hung up after saying goodbye, and slowly tried to extract herself from her bed, though she realized she'd shoved herself a little bit too deep in her panic to get away from what was apparently a very small dragon. It was a struggle, though eventually she managed to squirm free a few inches- until she felt something tugging on her boot.

Her heart sprung up into her chest as she turned to look, and sure enough despite never seeing it enter the house, the tiny little dragon thing was tugging on her foot, trying to help her get free. She stared at it for a moment, watching as it kept tugging- though it felt too weak despite all the effort it seemed to put into the motions to do more than tug her foot around. She clapped a hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming, but the noise of it caused the little thing to freeze again and stare at her.

It was tiny, barely a foot and a half tall, almost like a cat in size if it wasn't for the wings furled against it's back. It had a tail with a little tuft of purple hair on the end, as well as a thin pouf of purple hair on it's head. The underside was stark white, with a line of purple where underside and top met, and the top of the thing's scales were jet black. It had four legs, the front two ending in paws with five little fingers, even with thumbs, the claws on the end currently grasping her boot.

Vicky stared as the thing stared quietly back at her, it's eyes glancing to the door every few seconds before looking back to the young farmer. Vicky slowly pulled her hand away from her mouth, and the thing let go of her boot, looking like it was going to bolt at any moment. "... h-hi?", she offered, and the thing's eyes widened slightly.

It looked behind itself, as if looking for something else she could be talking to, then spun around to look back at Vicky. One claw came up to point at itself. Vicky, confused, nodded her head as her eyebrows drew together. "Yeah. You."

The thing shrunk back, eyes going even wider, skittering up against the wall to press into the corner.

"No! It's okay." Vicky's voice grew quiet. "I'm just... stuck. One..." She struggled again, trying to free herself, eventually just having to lift the bed a tiny bit so she could finally squeeze free with a huff of breath. She began to brush herself off, then turned to look for the little thing... which had vanished. "... second."

She let out a quiet sigh. "Great. It's gone."

From outside she heard an engine crawling closer to her shack, and she stepped outside to see an old-fashioned blue truck with a wooden bed pulling up, a male maybe around her age with brown hair, wearing what looked like a green varsity jacket, stepping out of the cab. He waved as he shut the door and moved toward the back. "Hey. You must be the new girl. I'm Alex."

"Yeah. Hi, nice to meet you." She wrapped an arm around herself, hopefully so he wouldn't see it shaking. "I'm Vicky, though you probably heard already. Thanks for bringing the bike around."

"Yeah, no problem." He lifted the bike from the back with one hand, not bothering with the tailgate, and placed it on the ground to walk it over to Vicky. "I got a call from Lewis on the way over? You had a... rat problem or something?"

"A rat? No, it was..." Her eyes were drawn to the top of the truck, where the little thing was sitting again. She looked to Alex then pointedly looked to the top of the truck, then back again a few times as he just gave her a confused look at first until it finally seemed to click.

He turned to look, stared for a moment, then turned back to peer at Vicky, still confused. "Are you okay? There's nothing up there."

Her head whipped back to him to stare incredulously. The little dragon was still sitting on top of the cab. "Seriously? You can't see it?"

He turned to look again, then back to Vicky, smiling a little. "Is this a prank or something? I don't see anything."

Vicky sighed and shook her head, then stepped forward. "No, sorry. I guess I'm just working too hard. Thanks for bringing the bike over."

"No prob. You need help with the farm?" He raised an arm and flexed, showing off how the fabric of his jacket stretched around his arm. "I can totally do whatever you need. I did like a thousand pushups this morning."

 _Are you serious?_

Vicky had to fight off the urge to facepalm at the display, and shook her head. "No, I should do it myself. I appreciate the offer, though. Really. I'll buy you a drink Friday."

"Sweet. I'll see you there, new girl." He stuck out his finger and thumb in a fingergun, making a click noise with his mouth as he moved back to the truck. "Lewis and the others should be here soon. See you around, new girl!"

"It's Vicky!", she called after the truck as he backed, turned, and then drove off down the road, waving a hand out the window in a 'whatever' gesture as he pulled away. She just groaned as she moved back toward her field. She'd known plenty of guys like him while she was in High School, though he didn't seem quite as bad as them. Maybe a little... dimmer, though.

She went back to work, spotting the little dragon-thing at least three more times before Lewis and the others finally turned up. It had taken to sitting near her foot while she tilled the ground, and while it remained quiet and didn't do anything hostile, she did her best to try to ignore it until she could figure out what was going on with it.

Perhaps ten minutes after Alex left, the others drove up in a newer-looking truck, two people sitting in the back, one male and one female, with someone sitting in the cab with Lewis. As they all piled out she got a good look at them, leaning over onto her hoe with the head stuck in the ground. One, an older-looking gentleman with greying hair peppered through an otherwise-rich brown, wore a large stetson hat and an interesting mustache and pointy beard combo, along with glasses, his whole outfit a denim blue.

The woman had bright red hair and carried a hammer slung over her shoulder, a yellow track jacket covering her as she came to stand beside Lewis. The third was another older man wearing an extremely beat-up old cap with a large beard, and a fuzzy red sweater. All three of them stood gathered around Lewis as he spoke something to the blue-hat man and handed him a book.

"Vicky, this is Gunther", he gestured to the blue man, who tipped his hat, "Robin", he gestured to the woman, "And Willy. Pierre told you about him yesterday. Robin's the one who built the new box."

"Nice to meet you.", she said.

Vicky nodded, offering her a smile. "Same. And you two gentlemen as well."

"We had a bit of a disagreement on the way over, Vicky," Lewis said as Gunther flipped through the book. "We hoped you might be able to help."

"Uh... alright." She stepped closer, looking at the book as she did, as Gunther offered it to her and let her take it into her hands.

"Can you read this page for us?" Gunther asked, gesturing to one with a finger.

"Yeah, sure. Uh... 'Spotted the small guardian spirit Scellia swimming in my lake the other day'- Hey!", she spoke up as Lewis grabbed the book from her hands with a whispered 'what?' as he turned the book to read it himself.

"Vicky the page doesn't say anything like that!"

Then it was Robin's turn to chip in, as she squeezed between Gunther and Lewis to read off what she could see. " '-Another infestation of rats, saw one floating in my lake-'",

Then Willy spoke, as if reciting what he'd seen on the pages as Lewis and Gunther began to mumble among themselves. "Spotted the little dragon again, splashing around in the pond."

Vicky's eyebrow felt like if it was going to go any higher, it'd have to detach itself from her forehead. "Lewis? What do you see?"

"Same as Willy, the dragon splashing in the pond."

"Gunther?"

"I see what Robin sees", he spoke up without drawing his head away from the page as the three of them practically fought to hold the book.

Vicky glanced to Willy, who just shrugged, then turned to look at the roof of their truck, where the little thing- apparently named Scellia- was sitting again, looking rather smug. "Okay, I have a question."

Everyone turned to look at her as she continued. "Look at the roof of your truck, do you see anything?"

Almost as one, the four of them turned to look, then one by one swiveled back to look at Vicky. A chorus of 'no' and a couple of negative headshakes were the answer, and she had to sigh. "Okay. Because I see a little dragon sitting on the top of your truck."

Lewis turned to look again, squinting, while the other three continued to look at Vicky in varying states of confusion and disbelief. Gunther looked at Lewis and shrugged, and Lewis handed the book to Vicky again. "Can you keep reading?"

"Sure. Uh..." She traced a finger across the page as she tried to find where she'd left off. "Ah, okay. '-the other day. The crops grew overnight again, perhaps a payment for letting her swim. Flew off toward the Southwest later, probably toward the old tower. We've heard she lives there.' That's all it says.", she added, as she looked back up at the four of them.

Lewis scratched his head under his hat, while Gunther took the book back and continued to scan the page, trying to look for what Vicky had seen. Willy looked somewhat bored, and Robin continued to give Vicky the 'are you okay' look she'd been giving since Vicky said she'd seen the dragon on top of their truck.

"Well, I can't say I know what to do. Uh, Robin, you wanted to talk to her?"

Robin nodded and moved toward the back of the truck. "That's right." She pulled out her own bike, as Willy moved back toward the bed and climbed in.

"We'll go back to the Library and see if we can find anything. Thank you for coming, Willy." Lewis waved to the back of the truck, while Willy just replied 'yep' as he took his seat again.

Robin moved over to stand near Vicky as Lewis and Gunther climbed back into the truck. "Don't hesitate to call if you don't feel safe, Vicky. We'll figure something out." She could hear him look to Gunther and say something quietly, though it sounded like 'should we get Harvey', which Gunther shook his head in response to.

"So, uh, anyway", Robin started as the other three left in their truck. "I just wanted to let you know that I can do repairs on your cabin if you like."

"Oh! That'd be great. What sort of repairs?" Vicky moved back to her little tilled row of land and retrieved her hoe from where she'd let it fall into the dirt.

"Well, I sized up the place while I was here putting your drop box together. I figure I can make a few additions without adding too much of a footprint to the building. Bigger kitchen, extra rooms in the back, that sort of thing."

"That would be wonderful. Though I wonder how much it'd all cost." Vicky leaned over on her hoe again, relaxing a bit while Robin spoke to her, though she noticed her new little friend sitting by her foot again, having retrieved the tiny rake from the dirt.

"Well a basic upgrade, and you can always add input afterward that will raise or lower the price accordingly, would probably be around 15,000G. Though if you provide materials", she gestured to the farm around Vicky with a pointed look, "I can probably bring it down to something like 10,000G."

Vicky smiled, though she was inwardly recoiling at the numbers offered. "I see. That's definitely out of my price range at the moment, but I will have to keep you in mind."

Robin nodded, then started to climb up onto her bicycle. "Great. I live just north of town, past the old community center. Just follow the path toward the mountains and you can't miss us." She started to turn to leave, then looked to Vicky one last time. "And, uh... try to get some more sleep, okay?"

Vicky laughed, raising a hand to wave as the woman left. "Yeah, definitely. Thanks for coming over, good to meet you!"

"Yep yep, see you."

Vicky looked down to the little dragon still holding onto the rake as Robin pedaled away. "So you're Scellia."

The little thing nodded once, then looked down at the ground to start running it's rake across the dirt.

Vicky sighed, then headed toward her house to retrieve her Parsnip seeds. "I should have stayed in The City, I'm already going crazy out here."


	5. Of Forests Abnormal

Vicky had spent the rest of her day working on the farm. Her new little friend kept turning up now and again, and disappearing just as often, sometimes at her feet, sometimes on her shoulders, sometimes rummaging through her things inside the house. She'd returned inside later that night after deciding to call it a day to find most of the contents of her duffel bag strewn about her bedroom. She'd grumbled, but then just used it as an excuse to unpack and get all of her things put away. Thankfully the house had a working washing machine and dryer, so she'd started clothes before she went to bed, after having a shower and getting herself clean.

She woke up the next morning feeling rested, and though she did feel sore it was more of a... memory of being sore than anything of a detriment. Seeing the little dragon at the foot of her bed, curled up and sleeping, had given her a bit of a start before she remembered that, no, yesterday hadn't been a dream and there was in fact a tiny dragon inhabiting her farm. Scellia disappeared sometime during breakfast after absconding with a piece of toast, which reminded Vicky that she'd need to go properly grocery shopping in town rather than relying on what she'd brought with her.

She'd set an alarm on her phone for early in the morning, deciding that it'd be best if she got used to the idea of getting up before the sun most days. It'd give her more time to work on the farm, and it'd help her to have a schedule. All things considered, she hadn't expected waking up to be easy, what with having exercised all day, and was pleasantly surprised at the apparent lack of soreness she'd experienced.

As she stood outside drinking some water, she realized that the flag on her mailbox was up, suggesting she had mail. She ventured over to have a look, finding several messages. One was from someone named Demetrius, asking her to come by and say hello, he was apparently Robin's husband. Another was a card from Harvey, the doctor she'd heard mentioned yesterday, offering her a discount on a checkup if she'd come by so he could start gathering medical records and establish a care program if she needed one. _Maybe for being crazy and seeing dragons others can't._

The last few messages were more of the same, from different people welcoming her to town. One from a Jodi introducing herself and her sons Sam and Vincent, a lovely handmade card from someone named Evelyn and what Vicky assumed to be her husband George, and even a message from the Blacksmith, Clint, wondering if Vicky'd found the tools satisfactory. She decided she'd go into town and buy some stationary and reply to all the messages and introduce herself to everyone.

The last message in her mailbox proved to be rather interesting. It only showed up once she'd removed all the other letters, and the envelope appeared to be gilded along the edges in gold, the script of the address, reading only 'You'll Know' on the front, shimmering in the early morning light. She put the other letters under her arm and peeled the newest one open, pulling free a thick card with writing on one side and a picture of a large stone tower on the other. _'I'd love to help you with your 'rat problem', though we both know she isn't a rat. Please come by my tower at your earliest convenience, I'd love to talk.'_

Vicky was somewhat alarmed when she felt the card vibrate slightly, though when she turned it over to see why, she was greeted by an arrow at the base of the tower that moved when she moved the card around. She soon realized it was pointing off toward the south, a magical form of GPS. "Well, that's certainly something", she mumbled to herself, shifting the card this way and that to watch the arrow move.

She placed all her mail but the magical card inside her home, deciding that rather than freak out like she wanted to at all the strange magical things going on, she'd do her best to take it all in stride and deal with things as they came. She was stuck here, so she might as well just get over it sooner rather than later. A few minutes watering her plants using the watering can filled from a hose later, and she was off on her bicycle toward the south. There was a vague hint of what might have been a path at some point through the forest, or at least it wasn't quite as filled with trees, and was easier to navigate through.

A short period of riding later, and she'd broken through into what looked like a wooded plain, trees and bushes strewn here and there, but at least there were proper paths. She'd found the bike sturdy and well-maintained, if a bit squeaky under power from not being ridden in a while. It was an older style, so she supposed that was understandable. To her left was a farm, and off near a large lake looked to be a cabin, but a glance off in the distance and a consultation with the card she'd been given affirmed that what she wanted held itself at the large tower she could see rising above the trees off to the west.

She pedaled through the plain along the path, a quiet Tuesday morning, mulling over what she'd seen and experienced so far in her stay within Stardew Valley. She'd somehow managed to attract the attention of a magical creature and what appeared to be some kind of wizard, learned magic was in fact real at least to some degree, planted some crops, watered them, and met some of the townsfolk. A weird, but possibly marginally successful first day? She really wasn't sure how to qualify these things yet.

Along the way to the Wizard's tower, she met someone she hadn't been expecting to see- Abigail, of all people.

Vicky pedaled up to her acquaintance, who'd noticed and stopped with a wave as Vicky was pedaling toward her, walking back toward town. "Hey, Vicky. Going to go see the Wizard?"

"Yeah, I got this card from them in the mail today." She fished it out of her pocket where she'd placed it to show it to the purple-haired woman. "Some weird stuff going on at the farm, I guess it attracted his attention."

"Yeah he mentioned that you'd managed to meet Scellia. He's a bit cross."

Vicky just... stared for a moment, surprised. "You mean you don't think she's a rat or just a dragon?"

"What? Of course not." Abigail laughed quietly. "He did mention those not so 'attuned' would either not be able to see her or understand her as something else. He's upset because it took him years before he could see her, and you turn up and she actually goes and finds you in a day. I haven't seen her yet, but I know who she is."

Vicky let out a quiet 'huh' and sat down onto her bike seat, resting for a moment. "Weird. Some of the others could only see stuff about a rat in the old journal..."

"About that..." Abigail looked off back toward the town. "Actually, he should probably explain. You should head on over and see him."

"Alright." Vicky started to take off, but then settled back onto her seat. "Hey, Abigail?"

"Yeah?" She turned back to look toward the farmer.

"What were you doing out here, anyway?"

"Oh, I usually go learn from him on Sundays but I missed it because of the thaw, pathway was full of mud. If you come into town will you come see me? I'm curious about what you two are going to talk about."

"Definitely!" Vicky smiled. _Any excuse to see you is fine by me._ Though she didn't add that bit.

Abigail nodded and headed off, and Vicky did the same toward the tower.

When she arrived, she parked up her bike at the side, then walked up to the large wooden door set into the stones on the southern face of the tower. She moved to knock, but the door opened with a quiet 'click', and a deep voice from inside intoned 'Enter, please'. She pursed her lips but did so, though the entire place had her hackles up. Something about it felt... wrong.

She entered to find herself in a wood-paneled room. The floor was smooth, like it had been polished through many years' worth of feet, though there was a large stone circle with symbols drawn on it on one side of the room. On the other was a large, smoking cauldron with a fire burning beneath, though the fire didn't seem to bother the wood floor at all. She eventually realized there was a man standing near the cauldron, though he was obscured by smoke most of the time. "Uh... hello?"

"Yes. Hello." His voice was just as deep as it'd been when she heard it near the door. He wore a black hat with a purple ribbon and a golden symbol on the front, had purple hair- _That seems popular around here-_ and wore black robes, with a large golden chain around his neck, over the robes. She couldn't see much else of what he was wearing given how he was standing, though she imagined the rest of it was just as 'mystical' as what she could see.

He gestured with a hand, motioning for Vicky to come closer. "I am Rasmodius, Seeker of the Arcane Truths, mediary between the physical and ethereal, Master of the Seven Elementals, Keeper of the Sacred..." He let out a good-natured sigh. "You get the point."

Vicky smiled slightly and nodded, not having expected him to stop halfway through. Maybe he was as tired of listing off all those titles as she'd been growing of hearing him rattle them off. Contrary to her first impression, he didn't seem _quite_ as full of himself as he'd appeared.

"And you, Victoria, the one whose arrival I have long forseen."

That sent her eyebrows directly vertical. "Me? Why me?"

He nodded, then gestured again. "Here, I'd like to show you something."

He reached into a pocket in his robes, revealing dark cloth or leather pants and a purple shirt, and pulled free a handful of some kind of power. He tossed it onto the stone circle with a cry of 'Behold!'. Vicky was initially going to dismiss it as theatrics, but then she saw some kind of odd green marshmallow-looking creature appear in the circle.

She wanted to leap backward and scream, but the thing started to fade away after only a moment. She glanced to the Wizard with a look of concern, and he seemed to judge her for a moment. "So you can see them. Hm. The other villagers in town, for the most part, cannot. Any reference to your small draconic friend they will interpret as rats, or other small woodland creatures, and will be unable to see her if she chooses to manifest in town. I've taken the liberty of erasing the villagers' memories of yesterday on your farm. It's best if they don't ask too many questions, I'm afraid. They cannot see, much less understand."

Vicky didn't particularly _like_ that but she supposed she could understand why. "What about Abigail? She seems to understand."

"As long as you keep the information between the two of you, I don't believe any harm will come of it. Though I suggest you not mention it to anyone else."

He strode away from the circle as the little green thing seemed to squeak and shiver before it slowly disappeared, his hand resting on his chin, entwined in his beard. "This is most interesting. The foretelling suggested that you'd be attuned with the elements and the forest, but not to such a degree that you'd be able to see them on your very first day." He seemed to be mostly talking to himself, Vicky could barely hear him over the rumbling and bubbling coming from the cauldron.

"Are you see you've got the right person? This is the first time I've really even been in a forest, and I only got here yesterday."

"If Scellia thinks you're the right person, then I do. It took me many years before she'd show herself to me, and she sought you out on your very first full day here. She apparently thinks you're important, or strong enough to care about, which means you are intriguing to me. Tell me, are you the granddaughter of old sir Finley? The man who owned that farm before you?"

"Yeah. I'm here because he sent me the deed."

"Certainly. These things do fluctuate through generations. Hmm..." He stroked his beard a few times before he continued. "He was attuned as well, though never enough to see anything. The land reacted to him, cared for him, as he cared for it. His farm was rich and prosperous in his time, and it mourned his passing. The land is thick with nature because of it."

"You mean all the trees and things I've been cutting down were mourning him? Is that ..." She shook her head and looked away. "This is all too weird for me."

"It may seem strange at first, but you are mostly correct. The land is covered with plantlife in a natural facsimile of the way he maintained it while alive. Though he covered it in useful and saleable goods, not weeds and trees and grass. I doubt the forest will be offended if you clear the land for farming. If it was, Scellia", he gestured toward Vicky, "Would have prevented you from doing so."

Vicky turned, and almost jumped as she realized the little dragon was sitting behind her. It was nibbling on some sort of crystal it held in a paw, though it didn't appear to be actively eating it. She could hear little 'tink tink' noises coming from it as sharp teeth impacted the surface.

"Yes, she seems to like Amethysts. Might make a good offering or gift if you ever have any. Regardless, she seems to have taken a shine to you. She followed you here this morning."

"Really?" Vicky glanced back at the dragon, who greeted her with a raised eyeridge and further nibbling of the crystal. She turned back to the Wizard as she continued. "She ran off after breakfast, and that's the first time I've seen her in over an hour."

"Truly?" He pursed his lips and stroked his beard, looking toward the cauldron. "Come here, please." He beckoned her with a finger, as he reached toward a table and retrieved some kind of goblet.

"The forest creature you saw earlier, the one in my circle that I summoned, was a Junimo. Scellia is not a Junimo, as you can probably observe for yourself. She's a forest spirit, a guardian of sorts, protecting the land. Able to grant and take away blessings as she sees fit. The lack of ache you feel this morning is her doing."

"Oh, I guess I should thank her for that. I was expecting to wake up a painful lump."

"Quite. The Junimo, however, are more like custodians. They maintain the forest, where she protects it. They can grow it, perform magic, repair it. They've taken up residence in the old abandoned Community Center in town. I believe Lewis wants to show it to you." He looked toward Vicky somewhat pointedly as he ladled the contents of his cauldron into the goblet. "You should go with him. I would imagine the experience will be enlightening."

"Why's that?" She asked, as she watched him take a sip from the goblet, perhaps to judge if it was ready?

He pinched something from another pocket and added it to the goblet before handing it toward Vicky and continuing. "As you have no doubt seen or heard, JojaCorp has moved into the area. They've attempted such things in the past, and their lack of care for the land and it's inhabitants acts as a deterrent for things like Scellia and the Junimos. The land of the Valley loses it's anomalous properties after they farm it, as they do not care for the land as the farmers here do. Farmers under their employ have the effect 'rub off' on them over time, and though they may not change their behaviors, the 'taint', such as it is, spreads and renders the farmland mundane over time. More slowly than if the Corporation itself farms the land, but it invariably happens over a period of months." He gestured toward the goblet. "You should drink."

"Er, what is it?" She glanced toward the goblet. It was green, and glowing, and felt... oddly warm. Not to mention it didn't smell particularly good.

"It's a natural mixture, incorporating some of the Junimos own magic into the brew. It should bring your attunement into correct alignment. If you can see Scellia some times but not others, it may be that your long period living in the city threw off your natural energies. This will help correct them, and allow you to see the Junimos on your own." He flicked his hand as if motioning for her to drink again.

She pursed her lips and looked at the drink, swirling it slightly as she raised a lip in distaste. It smelled awful, and would probably taste just as bad. Not to mention she was about to drink a concoction of some sort from an old man she'd never met. Pretty bad things had happened to women in her position...

Vicky sighed and pinched her nose, then tilted her head back and poured the glass in.

Even with her nose pinched, it was as bad as she'd expected. Even though it smelled acrid, it tasted like she'd just poured liquefied bark and dirt into her mouth, and left her tongue feeling like it was coated in an earthy flavor. She had to fight back the urge to gag, though couldn't stop herself from coughing a few times.

"Yes, it's quite bad. Apologies."

Vicky nodded and looked up to the Wizard, though had to steady herself on the side of the cauldron as her head spun slightly as she stood. Strangely it didn't even feel warm...

"You may feel strange, but I assure you that the effects are temporary and you'll be fine in a few minutes."

She tried to nod, but she wasn't sure if she was nodding up or sideways, as her vision began to swim. Something akin to trees swirled across the room, green shapes like fractured leaves danced upon the wood of the floor. Or was that the wall? It might have even been the ceiling, she wasn't sure. She saw dancing dragons, tiny versions of Abigail raking dirt over rows of plants, and even Lewis with his face embedded in a tree. She saw other things, but not all of them were pleasant, and some simply didn't make sense at all.

Eventually she realized she was laying with her face on the floor, Scellia sitting before her looking somewhat concerned. Odd expression for something reptilian, they usually lacked the capacity for expression. She slowly pushed herself up with a groan, looking around. She was still in the Wizard's tower, though he didn't appear to be anywhere nearby, and many of the candles in the room had burned down or otherwise gone out. Even the cauldron's bubbling had died to a quietly-roiling shimmer. "Oh... my head...", she groaned as she stood, wobbling slightly as she pushed herself to her feet.

She glanced out the window only to realize it appeared to be rather late in the night, and cursed quietly. "I'll have to get home."

Vicky let herself out, and Scellia climbed onto her shoulder, though Vicky hardly noticed as the dragon appeared, or at least felt, weightless. "Did you hitch a ride this morning too?"

Scellia nodded several times, looking rather pleased with herself.

"Got it. At least I can see you full-time now."

The little dragon nodded again, then retrieved her Amethyst from... somewhere and continued to gnaw.

"Good talk", Vicky muttered under her breath as she set off for home.


	6. A Tale of Ruin and Caution

The next few days passed as uneventfully as could be, aside from Scellia's near-constant presence now that Victoria could see her properly. Deciding to put the gift she'd been given to good use, she barely left her farm other than one trip to town to trade some wood to Robin for enough coin to buy groceries from Pierre. He'd been surprised to see her, as he didn't have as much selection as JojaMart and his prices were a little higher, but she'd assured him that she'd never buy a single thing from that place as long as she lived in town. Unfortunately Abigail hadn't been home, so she hadn't gotten to see her friend again and talk to her about what she and the Wizard had discussed.

True to his word, Lewis and the others didn't seem to remember the events on her farm, and she hadn't wanted to press just in case his magic didn't work as well as he thought. She'd asked how they were doing and they asked how her farm was, and no mentions of rats or dragons or journals had been made. Vicky found this somewhat amusing, as Scellia spent the entire trip weightlessly occuping her shoulder. When she wasn't making a minor nuisance of herself by stealing something or running off with a tool or getting into the way, she either mimed what Vicky was doing or stole food. Vicky'd decided not waking up sore was worth whatever 'price' Scellia took for herself, however.

The parsnips she'd planted had appeared fully grown when she woke up Thursday morning, but she was planning another trip into town on Friday and decided to leave them in the ground the extra day, figuring it wouldn't hurt and they might even get bigger than that. When she harvested them, tugging each one up from the ground by the bulb after digging around them with Scellia's help, they came up fat and plump and healthy. She was so happy at having harvested her first plants she even captured the magical little dragon for a hug, though she'd apparently not appreciated it very much given her squirming and screeching at the gesture. Vicky had been too happy to care.

She knew that Lewis would be by to pick them up that night, but she wanted to bring her first harvest to town on her own to show that she was in fact capable of farming, and she wanted to buy seeds so she could replant as soon as possible. She'd spent her days clearing more space on her farm, and she'd planned out at least three more plots. She'd either plant more parsnips or other seeds if she was able to get them from Pierre once she'd sold her new produce.

Vicky had fashioned a trailer of sorts for her bike using an old wheelbarrow she'd found in a shed behind her house, buried in the overgrown forest. She'd attached the handle to the back of her bike with a length of rope, and she found she could tug it along behind her with a little effort as long as she didn't try to go too quickly.

In this fashion she ventured off to town with her trailer full of parsnips in tow, with Scellia having decided to sit on them for the ride. Vicky'd made her promise to help keep them in the wheelbarrow if she was going to ride back there, which got an enthusiastic nodding from the little dragon. There was another reason she wanted to go in town Friday, as she remembered Pierre or Lewis mentioning that everyone in town gathered in the Saloon Friday nights, and she was hoping Abigail would be there.

She pulled into town bright and early Friday morning, arriving at Pierre's shop right about when he was opening for business, as he hadn't even turned the little sign in his door window over to "Open" yet. She did it for him as she stepped inside, a grin a mile wide plastered across her features.

He smirked a little as he looked up from arranging his shelving, and turned to her more fully when he finished his current task. Vicky stood with her hands on her hips, looking extremely proud of herself when he asked "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, Miss?"

"You're looking at the newest successful farmer in the Valley! I have a wheelbarrow full of produce outside to sell."

He placed a hand on his hip and grinned. "Is that so? Well let's go see then!" He gestured for her to lead the way, and she led him through the door to view her bike which she'd propped up safely against the wall, about half full of parsnips. Scellia still sat on top, but she skittered down below it when he moved to look at them more closely.

Pierre couldn't help but laugh at her impromptu trailer, but he seemed rather impressed with the size and quality of the vegetables she'd produced. "Vicky these are absolutely wonderful. I'll take the whole lot if you'll let me."

Her eyes went wide, she'd been expecting him to take the majority, but she'd thought she'd have to spend at least part of the day hawking them to the villagers to get rid of the rest. "W-well, sure! Definitely. Can I ask what you'll give me for them, though?"

He nodded, placing a hand on his chin as he examined them. "Uh... Let's get them inside, I'll look them over, then tell you what I'll give you for the lot of them. Sound good?"

She nodded, giving him a thumbs up. "Sure thing. Should I just start dragging them inside, or...?"

He let out a laugh and shook his head. "Nono, I'll get Abigail with some crates out here to help you."

She grinned nice and wide, and felt her heart skip a beat knowing that she'd get to see her friend sooner rather than later. "Awesome! I've wanted to talk to her about something."

Pierre nodded, then headed inside. She could hear him calling for Abigail outside, and Vicky took a moment to make sure she looked alright in the reflection on the door. Abigail liked Sebastian but you could never really know, right? Her hair being short made that a little easier since she didn't have to worry about it so much.

The object of her affections ventured outside a few minutes later, looking a little sleepy but that was to be expected given how early it was, and she was carrying a few plastic crates that they'd be able to put the parsnips in to get them inside. "Hey Vicky", she greeted with a yawn.

"Good morning", she replied, with a wave. "Nice to see you. Hopefully I didn't disrupt your sleep any."

"No, I was just trying to figure out what to have for breakfast when Dad grabbed me, so it's fine."

"Oh, I see. Well, while we're loading these would you like to hear what Mr. Wizard had to say?" She raised an eyebrow with a grin.

"Sure thing. Just don't call him that, he hates it.", she replied with a laugh.

Vicky spent the next few minutes talking to Abigail about what she'd learned from Rasmodius while they loaded the crates with parsnips, Scellia even helping out a bit by placing a couple of parsnips into Vicky's basket when Abigail wasn't looking. Vicky figured she didn't want her friend to see a floating parsnip fly into a crate. They also spoke a bit about how things on the farm were doing, and Vicky mentioned that it was somewhat lonely with nobody to talk to. _Smooth as ever._ Scellia gave her a bit of an offended look, but Vicky shot her a glare of her own. She was trying to work her game here, man.

Abigail laughed quietly, then stood as the last parsnip was loaded into a crate. "You know, I could give you my number? You could call if you ever want a chat. And I can text you when things are going on in town or I learn about anything interesting you might want to know?"

"Yeah that'd be great!" Inwardly rejoicing, she pulled out her phone and punched in Abigail's number. "And there we go." She texted Abigail a smiley face just to make sure it was right, and then the two of them began carrying the crates inside.

While they were waiting for Pierre to count and examine the parsnips, Vicky glanced to the side. "Hey, I heard something about an old abandoned Community Center or something? Sounds like a cool place to explore, right?"

"Yeah. I've been in there a few times. Vincent and Jas, Jodi's son and Marnie's niece, go play there sometimes. They built a little hut thing inside."

"Want to show me around? We could bring breakfast, make a little excursion out of it." She internally crossed her fingers as she waited.

Abigail thought it over for a moment, then shrugged. "I'll pass. I have some schoolwork to do before it gets too far in the day."

 _Damn._

"Alright. I'll go ask Lewis about it, Rasmodius said he'd know more."

Pierre glanced up at the two of them, from Abigail to Vicky. "Did she introduce him to you? Kind of an odd old man. Never comes into town much."

Vicky turned to look to Pierre. "I got a letter from him in the mail asking to go have a chat."

"Ah, so like Abby-" Abigail scoffed at the nickname. "-did then. She goes out there and sees him at least once a week, right?"

Abigail nodded, and Pierre gave her sort of an odd look for a moment before he turned back to the Parsnips. "Anyway, by my count I'll be able to give you right around a thousand G for all this."

Vicky let out a noise, drawing a laugh from Abigail and a raised eyebrow from Pierre. "Sorry! I just... that's not overpaying, is it?"

"Not at all, it's a completely fair price. These are really high quality, and you have a couple of really big ones in here."

"Great!" She leaned over the counter, looking into the glass display box recessed into it. "Can I buy some more seeds?"

"Certainly!" He gestured to the box, then pointed at one section near the top. "Anything listed in the 'Spring' box, prices are underneath."

Abigail wandered off after saying bye to Vicky while she and Pierre discussed seeds, and soon afterward she left with a healthy bunch of brand new seeds for her farm in a paper bag. She returned to find Scellia napping in the wheelbarrow, which she carefully dropped the bag into. That woke the little dragon up, and she started sniffing at the bag and all the different kinds of seeds that Vicky'd gotten. Cauliflower, Green Beans, Kale, Potatoes, and of course more Parsnips, along with a few flower seeds to start a little garden near the front of her house.

Vicky decided to leave her bike at Pierre's store after asking him if it was alright, leaving the little dragon to sleep, and wandered around town to see who she could find awake this early. It had gotten a little later after her errand at Pierre's shop, and she was able to find a few people up and about in town. She met Alex outside of Evelyn and George's house, who turned out to be his Grandparents, and she chatted with him a bit and thanked him for making sure her house had been clear. She found Sam, one of the others who'd gone to check out her farm, and thanked him as well as introducing herself. He was a little bit of an odd one by her measure, with comic book-esque hair, and wearing a bright blue jacket.

She also ran into a young woman named Emily with bright blue hair, though she didn't have too much time to talk. It turned out she worked with Gus, the owner of the Saloon, and was heading over to make preparations for their busiest night of the week. She also met Jodi outside of her home, waiting with Vincent for someone named Penny to arrive, and introduced herself to the both of them, as well as Jas when she turned up from Marnie's farm, and then Penny when she also arrived to take the two of them off to the library.

After talking with them a bit and allowing them to head off on their way and saying goodbye to Jodi, Vicky ventured back into town. She still had a little bit of money left over, not wanting to spend every coin she'd earned on new seeds and overwhelm herself, and she wanted to go visit Harvey and get that checkup she'd been missing. To tell the truth, it had been quite a while since she'd visited a doctor at all.

When she arrived at the building, just to the side of Pierre's shop and partially attached, she found Mayor Lewis standing outside near a tree. "Hello Mayor! Good to see you."

"Vicky! Lovely to see you in town. I haven't seen you in a couple of days, are things going okay?"

"More than okay, actually." She gestured to the little bike and 'trailer' leaning against Pierre's store. "I pulled up my first harvest and brought them to Pierre today. I know you said you'd come pick them up but I wanted to come into town anyway to introduce myself to more people, and I wanted to sell the first ones myself."

He smiled and nodded. "I was wondering if that was yours. It's great that you're doing so well so far. What're you up to at the moment?"

"I'm going to go see Dr. Harvey and get a checkup, it's been a while."

Lewis smiled, shaking a finger in her direction. "Good thing then! Can't have our newest resident getting sick. I'll let you go then, and enjoy your stay in town."

"Oh, I will. I'm planning to stay until tonight so I can mingle at the Saloon."

"Wonderful! Wonderful, I'll look for you there."

She nodded and headed into the clinic, the door swinging open with a quiet tinkling noise. She found Dr. Harvey standing behind the counter, a somewhat mousey looking man with tousled hair and a pair of glasses wearing a green suit and tie.

"Hello! You must be Vicky, the new farmer. Have you come for your checkup?" He ventured to ask.

"I have! It's good to meet you. Is there a wait period?" She gestured to one of the chairs nearby in the waiting room. It looked very clean and a little warmer than most clinics that she'd seen, more of a homey type of place than she was used to.

"No, you're actually the first person to come in today, I'll be able to take you right now." He gestured for her to head through the door straight ahead of her. "Right this way and I'll see you immediately."

While Vicky was being examined he let slip that he was glad she'd come in, most of the villagers were in good shape and usually only came in for their yearly checkup and shots, though a few of them came in more often for regular visits, mostly George, or when they got sick or hurt. He also mentioned that he sold a few over the counter medicines, mostly for tiredness and energy since most of the work done in the area was physical in nature, along with headache medicine and a few other medical staples.

She checked out with a clean bill of health, and before he let her leave he informed her that he'd pull her records from the city in a few days, just so he'd have a more-complete record of her medical history. Vicky waved goodbye and left not long after, deciding he was a rather nice man to have for a doctor.

By the time she finished up it was just after lunch, and she decided she'd head over to the Saloon to grab a bite to eat, and then perhaps go take Mayor Lewis up on his offer to go visit the Community Center, though he hadn't offered quite yet. Sometimes it's nice to have a Wizard around so you'll know what to expect.

After lunch and meeting Gus, a jolly man who'd insisted that her drinks tonight would be on the house if she stopped by as promised, she headed back over to Lewis' home. "Hey, Lewis. Anything interesting going on in town today?"

"Not today, I'm afraid. Other than the weekly meetup tonight in the Saloon, that is." He stood from where he was kneeling at a small flowerbed in front of his home. "I did want to talk to you, though."

Vicky nodded, standing still and putting her hands into her pockets. "Sure! What about?"

"Have you seen the old Community Center outside of town?"

 _Damn, he was right after all._

"No I haven't, but someone mentioned it to me. Why?"

He waved with a hand, gesturing for Vicky to follow him as he began walking. "I wanted to show it to you. And talk to you a little bit."

"Sure thing, Mayor." She kept her hands in her pockets as they walked, and it didn't take long for them to cross the square and start heading up into the area north of town. There was a grand old tree here with a few things carved into the trunk, and Vicky was elated to spot a "P+G" carved into a heart halfway up the trunk. There was a nice little park in this area as well, and once they crested a small hill, she caught sight of the old Community Center. It looked like it had once been an important and loved building, judging by the size and position of it near the park, but it had clearly fallen into disuse and disrepair. "So what happened to this place?"

"Well, as I mentioned before, when Joja moved in... it sort of seemed like people just stopped caring. There were less people in town so a large central area wasn't really necessary, and the head of maintenance, a lovely old man by the name of Paul, died just afterward. We couldn't find anyone to replace him, and the building is rather old. After a while things started to break down. When the boiler finally went we didn't have a choice." He let out a quiet sigh and put his hands in his pockets, staring at the old building for a few minutes, and Vicky let him reminisce in peace.

He looked down after a moment and pulled a keyring out of his pocket, flipping through it with a finger until he held one large iron key up and looked at Vicky with a bit of a smile. "Would you like to go inside?"

"Sure! I love exploring things." She pulled her hands out of her pockets as well, and followed as he began to lead her toward the building.

She had to help him push the door open once he'd finally managed to undo the lock, very nearly frozen shut after years of neglect. _How are the kids getting in here? Must be a small entrance somewhere._

Sure enough, there was evidence of small child inhabitation, a few coloring books and toys, and even an odd little hut in the corner. Lewis led her over to what looked like it had once been a large aquarium and gestured around himself. "Well, here it is. This was a little display of things available in town to show tourists when they stopped by, we used to keep live fish in this tank. Willy took care of them after it closed. Over there used to be a desk that was manned by a lovely young woman whose name I can't remember at the moment, she moved away when her parents did. Off in that direction," he gestured to the west, "There was a large communal craft room with a loom and things like that, and a few desks where volunteer teachers could instruct children. High School is handled not far away, but that bus doesn't run from the larger town as there aren't any kids of proper age in the area right now."

He put his hands in his pockets again as he glanced around, and it was a few minutes before he continued. "Further than the craft room was a pantry and kitchen, we used to have big communal dinners every Saturday that everyone would bring dishes and ingredients for and spend what time they could to help preparing or cleaning up afterward. Off that way," he turned east, "is the mayor's office and the boiler/maintenance room. There's a big vault in there where we used to store things important to the town, the key to the city, the treasury money, things like that. I keep it all at home now in a much smaller safe."

He sighed quietly, then glanced back to Vicky with a curious look. "What do you think of it all?"

She gave him a sad smile. "I think it's incredibly unfortunate that this place is abandoned like this. I wonder what it would cost to get it fixed up again."

"More than we can afford. If anyone else buys a Joja membership I'm just going to sell it to them." He sighed again, then gestured for the door. "I have some things I need to do in town. I'll leave the door open, you can come explore whenever you want."

"Alright. Have a good evening, Mayor." She waved as he headed out, gently closing the door behind him.

Vicky went for a little walk around the place, just exploring and checking out all the different rooms. Just as he'd stated, the building was in an extreme state of disrepair and she was surprised it hadn't come down yet. However, she found something interesting in the craft. A Junimo had been standing near some sort of golden plaque laying on the floor, though it bounced away and disappeared when she got close.

When she bent to examine it, she was momentarily stunned by some kind of impression of information on her mind, and the plaque glowed gently.

 _We are the Junimo, and we are here to help. Collect these items so that we may use their magic or as ingredients, and we shall pay you with help to the town!_

She got flashes of the other rooms in the building as a new plaque appeared on the floor of each one, complete with an attendant Junimo. Vicky returned to her own self a few seconds later, blinking her eyes as the visions faded from her mind and she was able to see the room again.

Vicky sighed quietly, slowly pushing herself to her feet. "I'm getting real tired of weird magical shit happening all the time. You'd think they could at least ask first."

It didn't take long for her to confirm that, yes, plaques had appeared in the other rooms, complete with lists of items and names engraved upon them. She had no idea why they wanted some of the things they did, but she supposed she didn't really have to understand tiny little magical creatures and their whims, as long as they did what was promised.

 _I wonder if this is what the wizard's vision was. Maybe I'll ask him._

She sighed quietly and headed back into town, sparing one look back at the Community Center as she crossed the little hill, when an odd thought strayed through her head.

 _All it took was one company to tear everything down. I wonder if one person can build it back up again._

Vicky stared a moment longer, then turned and headed down the stairs, leaving the old building behind.


	7. Fridays in Stardew

When Vicky returned to town, she found herself in a sort of melancholy mood. Seeing the state of the Community Center and hearing about how it had arrived there had taken a bit of the cheer out of her day, and it was still relatively early in the afternoon. She decided that a walk on the beach might go a ways toward clearing her head, or at least getting her out of this gloom she found herself in. She set off across the square toward the bridge across the river, where she could see a few palm trees through the more 'normal' trees closer to the town.

She passed over the river, the water clear and bubbling quietly, giving a wave to Sam where he stood on the bank smoking. He had some kind of game system in his other hand. _At least he's outside, playing. Better than when I had one of those things. Practically had to bribe me to get out of bed._

Vicky smirked to herself as she continued on, and after just a couple of minutes the pathway gave way to soft-packed dirt and finally sand as she approached the beach itself. She broke through the tree cover to find herself on sun-drenched sands, driftwood here and there, but the entire place had a bit of a peaceful air about it. She could see a dock off to the south, a few of them actually, with a shack up on stilts along one with a few lamp-posts and a bench or two. Probably a good place to go fishing if she was ever in the mood.

There was another shack closer up to the forest along the sand, decorated in a somewhat nautical manner; there was even an old life-preserver tacked to the wall. Curious, she walked up to have a look at the building, idly wondering just who might live in such a place. It was rather small, but the wood making it up didn't look overly weathered. Interestingly, she could actually hear piano from inside. A glance through the window in the door didn't immediately reveal anyone so she shrugged, and headed off toward the shack on the docks.

When she arrived it turned out that the shack was actually a shop, and judging by the fishing pole on the wall and the 'Live Bait' and 'Quality Tackle' signs she could see around the door, it was a fishing shop. She pursed her lips a bit as she looked over the front of it, then gave a little knock on the door.

"She's open!", came the reply from inside, and Vicky pushed the door open.

Inside she found Willy, and she gave him a smile as she entered. "Hello! I'm new here, moved in just Monday."

"Ah, that ye are. M'name's Willy, good t'meetcha." He stepped out from behind the counter to offer her a shake of the hand. _Apparently he doesn't remember the other day..._

"A pleasure. Name's Vicky. Is this a fishing shop?" She knew the answer, but it was polite to give people a chance to introduce themselves and talk about their interests when you met them.

"That it is, Miss. Best one in town, on account of it bein' the only one in town." He gestured over himself as he walked back behind the counter, pointing at the buoys and nets hanging overhead.

Vicky couldn't help but grin at that, and she nodded. "I see. I don't really know a lot about fishing, I was just coming around to introduce myself to everyone I haven't met yet."

"Ah, it's very relaxin', Miss. Say..." He paused for a moment as he leaned over the counter. "You're new here, and it's polite to give the newcomer a gift. How abouts you come up to the shop early one mornin' when the fish are still bitin', and I'll give you an old pole of mine and show you how to toss a line. Just not on a Saturday, that's my fishin' day."

Vicky nodded and held out a hand with her thumb pointing up. "Sounds good. I'll definitely try to find the time to make it. My dad used to fish a lot but he never really took me along."

"Ah, that's too bad. You have yourself a good day now, Miss." He lifted his beat up old hat to her as she nodded and made her way back out the door.

It was starting to get a little bit later in the afternoon now, and she figured she should probably be making her way toward the Saloon so she could get there early and introduce herself to people before the place got too loud. On her way back up the beach, she happened to notice the door to the little shack she'd seen earlier opening, and out came a person she wouldn't have expected to see here in a place like this.

The man who exited looked like he'd stepped out of the pages of a play, with an old-style vest and scarf around his neck, long straight brown hair, and a pair of slacks. He started to walk off down the beach before he noticed Vicky standing on the path through the sand from the forest to the dock. "Oh! Hello, you must be-"

Vicky nodded as she stepped closer, holding out a hand to him. "Vicky. It's nice to meet you."

"Marvelous. I'm Elliott." He gave her hand a kiss even though she'd just been intending a shake, drawing a little giggle and a blush from her. She couldn't say she'd ever been greeted like that before.

"Well, hello Elliott. What are you doing out on the beach like this? Doesn't it get dangerous in storms?"

He glanced back toward his shack to think about it for a moment, before he turned back to Vicky. "It does get a little windy at times, yes. But I'm far enough up the beach that I've never had any serious problems, and the environment out here, separated from the rest of the town and able to have peace and quiet most of the time... It's very conducive toward my writing."

"Oh! You're a writer? What are you working on at the moment?" Vicky put a hand on her hip as she stood to talk to him. She'd never been much of a writer herself, the longest thing she'd ever put together was a paper for school.

He pursed his lips and avoided her eyes for a moment, looking somewhat nervous, before he turned back to look at her again. "Well, it's sort of a long story. Just this and that at the moment. Trying out different ideas."

"I see. Well, I wish you luck! Will I see you at the Saloon?"

"Actually I was just about to head there myself. Would you like company?" He gestured up the path with a hand.

"That would be great. Maybe you can share any stories you have about the town while we walk?" She offered him a grin.

"Marvelous."

The two of them arrived a few steps behind someone else she hadn't met yet, who turned out to be Marnie. Vicky introduced herself, learning that the woman ran the animal and feed shop in town just outside the southern entrance to her farm. She'd excused herself quickly to go talk to Mayor Lewis, however, and Vicky didn't get to talk very long.

"Vicky! Elliott! Interesting to see you two turn up here together, eh?" Gus, the owner of the Saloon, gave Vicky a wink and a grin.

She laughed, waving a hand toward the man. He'd made a similar joke earlier after she'd walked in, though she'd been alone that time and he suggested he'd have to find the new girl some company. "It's not like that. I was walking back from Willy's shop and Elliott here", she gestured to her new friend, who nodded and greeted Gus, "Was walking out of his home. We thought it'd be a good idea to have company on the walk."

Gus just winked again. "Whatever you say, Vicky."

She smirked at the good-natured teasing and turned to Elliott. "See you in a bit? I want to go see if there's anyone else I haven't met yet."

"Absolutely. Good walking with you, Victoria." He clasped a hand on her arm and gave it a pat before he stepped away.

"Same." She waved as she headed off to see who else might be around.

Near the back of the building as she explored she found a darker room with a TV, a pool table, and a couple of arcade cabinets. She didn't immediately realize she wasn't alone, and only became aware when she heard pool balls being knocked around the table. She turned with a bit of surprise to find a young man leaning over the table, long dark hair and a black jacket, black jeans... A little flare of jealousy immediately sprung to life. _That must be Sebastian._

She moved toward the table to introduce herself, but he seemed to ignore her for now, still knocking balls around the table. She leaned over to watch as he demolished the field with a few skilled shots, rather impressive by her account. She hadn't seen someone play pool like that in quite a few years.

He stood after he pocketed the last ball and placed the end of his stick on the ground, pulling a cigarette out of his mouth to place it on the ashtray sunk into the corner of the table. He just looked at her for a moment before he finally spoke, his voice quiet enough that she was having trouble hearing him over the quiet talking from the Saloon proper. "You must be the new girl. Victoria, right?" He gave her a look up and down, then took the little block of chalk off the table and started preparing the end of his cue.

"That's right. You must be Sebastian." She turned to sit on the edge of the table, watching him as he prepared the table for the next round.

"You know my name already?" He glanced over out of the corner of his eye, seemingly sizing her up anew.

"Yeah. Abigail mentioned you, what you look like. Said you were a friend of hers."

He made a noise, almost like a grunt mixed with a sigh, and blew some hair out of his face. He said something she couldn't quite hear as he leaned over the table and broke the rack with the cueball.

"What was that? I didn't catch it, sorry."

"I said she'd want more than that." He didn't look up, already lining up his next shot.

"Really? The way she phrased it made it seem like you two already were." An eyebrow went up, and Vicky leaned over slightly to watch.

"Yeah, it's..." He grunted softly, but Vicky knew what that meant.

"Ah, girl trouble. One of the greatest problems of our age." She breathed out all dramatic-like, placing a hand on the edge of the table. She had to move it a moment later as a red solid shot by, however.

"Sorry." He glanced up after a moment, watching her before he took his next shot. "What do you know about girl trouble?"

"Probably about as much as you do, actually." She placed a hand on her chest, fingers splayed. "I have had my fair share of girl trouble over the years."

He stood up again, leaning on his cue as he sized her up for the third time. "Really?" When she nodded, he chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. "Well, what would you do in a position like that?"

 _Interesting. Not so much as a comment. I thought people out here might be a little more close-minded but that's two for two with no adverse reactions. But that_ _ **was**_ _Abigail and this guy... Both of them seem a little... outside the norm._

"I think... I'd probably just tell her. Don't be harsh about it. Just give it to her straight. Girls appreciate that sort of thing. Might get upset, but... Nothing you can really do to prevent that."

He didn't say anything for a while, knocking the balls around again, and when he finally spoke nearly half of them had disappeared into their pockets. ".. thanks."

"No problem." She smirked a little, then slipped off the table. "I'll be back, gonna go see if there's anyone else around."

He watched her for a moment, then actually smiled. "Alright. See you in a few then."

 _He's not actually bad looking when he smiles._

She pointed a finger and nodded, then headed back out into the main room. A few more patrons had arrived, including a few that she'd never seen before. The woman she'd met that morning, Penny, smiled and waved as Vicky returned to the main room, and gestured her over.

"Vicky, hi! I was just telling them about you." Penny wore a yellow shirt, with bright red hair pulled back at the back of her head into a bun. Next to her was a woman with long blonde hair wearing a blue dress, another woman with red hair pulled into a braid wearing a bright green shirt and a dark green vest, and finally a darker-skinned woman with long brown hair and glasses. "This is Haley, Leah, and Maru."

Vicky held out a hand to all three of them in turn with a smile. "Hello, it's nice to meet the three of you."

Haley returned it with a smile. "So you're from the city, huh? Know anything about the fashion that's popular these days?"

"Not really, unfortunately. I know it involves matching boots and skirts though.", Vicky offered with a smile.

"Oh.", she replied, with a look at Vicky's clothes. "I see." She turned away to head toward the bar, drawing a confused look toward the other three from Vicky.

Maru spoke up next, offering an apologetic smile. "Sorry. She's a little..." She made a non-committal hand gesture.

Vicky laughed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. That's alright, can't be friends with everyone."

Leah spoke up next, adjusting the strap to a bag she wore on her shoulder. It looked like it had brushes and a drawing pad in it. "So you're taking over the big farm north of my house?"

 _She must live in the little shack I saw when I was heading to the Wizard's Tower._

"That's right. Why?"

"Oh, I used to go forage on the land for food. Saves money instead of spending it at JojaMart."

"Oh! Well, why don't you go to Pierre's?"

Leah glanced toward Maru, then the door, as if making sure Pierre wasn't here yet. "Well, he's a little more expensive than JojaMart is...", she'd lowered her voice a little bit, meaning Vicky had to lean in. "He's such a nice man, and I know he's doing the best he can, but I'm just an artist, I can't really afford his prices."

Vicky nodded knowingly, letting out a little sigh. "Yeah, I understand. I was in the same boat myself at one point when I was going through college."

"You went to college?", Maru spoke up. "What for?"

"I was going to be an architect in the city. I had to drop out though, ran into problems with money and stuff like that."

"Oh, that's too bad. We're going to go get a table though, do you want to come?" Leah gestured over her shoulder.

"I'm waiting for someone, actually. But I'll come say hi later." Vicky waved a hand vaguely toward the door.

The three of them nodded with a smile each, then headed off.

Vicky didn't have to wait long for Abigail to turn up with her father, just long enough for her to order two sodas. She offered one to her new friend, still unopened, with a straw. She waved to Pierre as he walked off, but aside from a wave he didn't respond, already set on striking up a conversation with Mayor Lewis and Marnie. "Hey Abigail, was wondering when you'd get here."

"Hey! Thanks." She glanced toward the bottle offered and grinned at Vicky. "What? Just soda?"

Vicky shrugged, taking a sip of hers. "I don't actually drink Alcohol, so yeah."

"Really!?" Abigail let out a laugh as she leaned against the counter next to Vicky as she watched the door, cracking the top off of the soda with one of her nails to stick the straw in, drinking through that instead of from the neck so she wouldn't mess up her lipstick yet. That'd probably change as she switched to beer or whatever else it was that she drank, but Vicky'd had enough girlfriends to know to order it with the straw. "That's odd, is that a city thing?"

"No, I just never really liked drinking. Even in college. I used to get left home sometimes because of it, people thought I was boring, but usually I'd just stay in and play a game anyway so it's not so bad."

"Really? What game?" Abigail turned slightly to listen better as the sound within the Saloon picked up further, the volume steadily rising.

"Some old platformer, at the time. I think it was, uh... Oh hell, what was that thing." She gestured to move, and Abigail pushed away from the counter. Vicky led her toward the other room where Sebastian was playing pool, where it'd be a little bit quieter. "I think it was like, Super Marble Man or something? I don't really remember."

"Oh that's so old. We have Journey of the Prairie King here now." Abigail pointed toward one of the machines in the corner with a finger. Sebastian looked up as the two of them entered, a darker look coming over his face, and he turned back toward the pool table. Sam must've turned up while Vicky was talking to the four girls, because he'd taken up position at the table with his own cue. He shot a wave to Vicky, then turned back to the table, but he didn't seem to be having a good time of it judging by the way that Sebastian was quickly emptying the felt.

"Journey of the Prairie King, huh? I heard that was coming out, I didn't think you guys would really have it yet."

Abigail nodded, then held out her soda toward Vicky. "Hold this for me?" When Vicky answered 'sure', she turned to the machine and pulled a few coins out of a pocket on her skirt. "I still can't get past the first level..."

A few minutes and many dead Prairie Kings later, Abigail let out a loud 'Damnit!' and smacked the machine with a hand. She took her drink back with a grumble and a sulk, shoving the straw between her lips so she wouldn't have to talk.

For her part, Vicky couldn't help but laugh. The more frustrated with the game she got the worse she'd done, until she lost her last three lives within thirty seconds of each other. "Don't worry, Abigail, I probably wouldn't have lasted half that long."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going to go order something stronger than soda. Do you want anything?"

"No I'm good, I've still got half." She held up her drink, which she'd just been slowly sipping.

"You sure? The three of us tend to get a little drunk Friday nights." She gestured between herself, Sebastian and Sam.

"No, no, I'm sure. Someone's gotta stay sober around here to make sure everyone gets home okay, right?" She grinned at the purple-haired woman.

"Suit yourself!"

Several hours and many tankards and glasses and shots later, the Saloon was slowly winding down. Leaving Abigail, Sam, and Sebastian, all three of them sitting around on the couches nursing beers, alone in the room for a minute, she walked over to go grab some food from Gus. It'd be easier on the three of them if they left with something in their stomachs that wasn't liquid. She met Alex sitting at the counter, nursing a drink, and someone, a guy, standing off in the corner by himself.

"Sup new girl." Alex waved his drink in her direction as she approached.

"I told you it's Vicky." She smirked a little as she stepped up to the counter, waiting for Gus to finish making someone else's order. She waved to Emily, the blue-haired woman she'd met earlier, who'd mentioned she worked here.

"Vicky, new girl, whatever." She could tell he was maybe more than a little bit drunk at this point.

"You still want that drink?"

"Nah, it's fiiiine. I've got mine, probably gonna turn in here soon. Grandma gets upset if I stay out too late."

"Ah. At least she cares, right? Always good to have someone watching out for you."

He grunted, giving her an unexpectedly sour look, and Vicky frowned slightly. She didn't have time to question, however, as Gus appeared at her end of the counter. "Vicky! Finally going to get some alcohol in you?"

"Actually I just wanted to pick up something for those three in here. Chips or something? Give 'em a little substance, you know?"

"Ah, I know just what you need! Coming up in just a couple minutes." He pointed toward her as he backed away to go prepare the food.

Leaving Alex to sulk in his beer after his attitude had unexpectedly changed, she wandered off to go meet the new guy she'd noticed. Alex's behavior didn't particularly bother her, she just chalked it up to general drunkenness.

The guy in the corner wore a light blue jacket with dark blue hair, holding a nearly-empty mug of beer. Certainly not a lightweight if that wasn't the first one of those he'd had...

"Hey. Name's Victoria."

"Don't care."

Vicky blinked a little, shocked at the sudden lack of hospitality. Everyone else here had been so nice...

"Not even a name to remember you by?" She cocked an eyebrow toward him.

"Nope." He took another drink from his mug, and judging by how much of it he killed that definitely wasn't his first one.

"Alright. Nice to meet you I guess."

He just grunted, and Vicky decided to cut her losses. Gus was already heading back with a plate of fries, anyway.

Maybe an hour later, very nearly midnight, Vicky was helping Sam, Sebastian and Abigail out the door of the Saloon. Sam was definitely the worst off of the three, having to be helped by Vicky and Sebastian as he seemed to have forgotten how stairs worked. "Oh gosh, Vicky, tell the one about the guy and hish car again..."

"No, no. You've had enough." She laughed, giving him a little pat on the shoulder. She glanced over to Sebastian and Abigail, and Sebastian seemed to be giving her an odd look. "Hey, uh, I'll make sure Sam gets home okay, alright?"

Sebastian nodded, then spoke something to Abigail and gestured for her to follow him.

"So, Sam. Seems like you had fun, right?"

"Yesh! Tonsh of fun. Sorry that I can't really, uh..." He seemed to lose his train of thought for a moment, though he recovered quickly. "Walk. And all."

"Nah, it's all good. You don't live that far away."

In fact, his house was just a few minutes walk from the Saloon, and Vicky just had to ring the doorbell once to get attention from inside the house.

"Vicky!" Jodi answered the door after a moment, though she quickly took Sam, 'Heeeey mom!', off of her shoulders. "He didn't get in any trouble, did he?"

"No, everything's fine. He just couldn't make it home on his own. Wanted to make sure he was alright."

Jodi gave Vicky a smile, and kissed her fingers to pat gently on Vicky's arm as she wrangled her son inside. "Thank you so much."

"No problem." She waved as the woman took him inside, and she headed back off toward the Saloon.

When she arrived, she found that there didn't seem to be anyone around, and even a search around the sides of the building, where she'd expected to find Abigail and Sebastian smoking, didn't turn up either of them. "Huh. Guess they went to go find a quiet corner. Maybe he didn't..." Vicky shrugged, feeling her spirits sag a little. "Oh well."

She was kicking a rock across the square, very nearly back at her bike to return home, when she heard something odd. Like a... strange wheezing or something like that. Curious as to what the sound was, she headed off toward the underbrush at the western edge of the square, only to find...

"Abigail? Are you okay?"

She was leaning against the tree in the darkness of the night, and between her huddled up where she was, and being covered by her dark hair, Vicky almost couldn't see her. She sniffled quietly, then waved a hand. "I'm okay, Vicky."

 _Oh, shit._

"Hey. What happened?" Vicky slowly sat down on the other side of the tree, giving Abigail her space.

It took a minute for her friend to respond, and when she did it was quiet. She was glad that the two of them were alone, because it would have been hard to hear otherwise. "Sebastian, he..." She sighed, and Vicky could hear her sniffle again.

"Aw, I'm sorry, Abigail." And she genuinely was, it was never fun to see your friends upset, even if you'd just known them for a week or so. "What'd he say?"

"Nothing mean. Nothing harsh." Another sniffle. "Just that he didn't really think we'd work out. I'm sorry I'm dumping this on you and I haven't known you that long."

"Ah, what are friends for, right? It's no big deal." Vicky leaned over, craning her neck around the tree. "Do you want to talk about it, or should I head out?"

"I think I just want to sit in the quiet for a minute." Vicky nodded and started to push herself up, but Abigail held out a hand. "No, you can stay. I just... don't want to talk for a minute."

"Oh. Right." She let out an awkward little laugh and settled back down, sighing out as she leaned back against the tree.

It was nice and quiet here, and she could understand why Abigail might come to a place like this to think. It was just out of range of the nearest lantern, meaning it wasn't pitch black but it was still dark, and if she hadn't heard the sniffling she never would have known Abigail was here.

She found her thoughts drifting to the state of the town and the way things had been on the decline for them, trying to figure out just what the Wizard could have 'forseen' with her arrival. She didn't feel like anyone special, aside from being able to see a little dragon nobody else could, and she certainly wasn't smarter than most other people. She'd played a little trivia game with Sebastian in the Saloon, and he'd blown her out of the water completely. Thankfully Abigail had volunteered to take her shots for her, since she didn't drink. He'd also blown Sam out of the water, twice, explaining how he'd gotten so completely sloshed.

It took her a minute to realize the sniffling had stopped, and she turned around to make sure Abigail was still there. She was just staring quietly, watching as the moon made it's slow way across the sky out over the ocean. Vicky slowly scooted around the tree to face it with her friend, not wanting to lean in an awkward position for too long. She didn't say anything, just watching the moon traverse across the sky.

The two of them sat in silence for a long few minutes, but Vicky didn't want to break it too early, and it's not like she really had anywhere else to be. Eventually Abigail spoke up, however. "I guess I was expecting it. We hadn't really been 'a thing' for a while. We barely spoke, didn't really hang out. He's always busy with his job. The only time we saw each other was Fridays and festivals."

"How long?" Vicky turned her head to the side slightly. She felt bad thinking it, but Abigail was definitely one of the 'beautiful sad' types, especially in this sort of lighting, from the bright moon in clear air like this.

"Just over two years. The first year was great. Then I started school and he started working, and we just... stopped hanging out."

"I've been there before. Back in high school, admittedly. But sometimes people just grow apart."

Abigail was silent for a few minutes before she let out a quiet 'yeah'.

The two of them sat in silence for a little while longer before Abigail started to push herself to her feet. "I should get going. My dad will want to know where I am."

"Alright. Hey, Abigail?" Vicky waited until her friend finished standing and looked at her. "If you ever need anyone to talk to, even if it's just through text or whatever, you've got my number. I don't mind being a shoulder."

The purple haired woman smiled.

"Yeah. I'll keep that in mind."

Vicky waited a few more minutes for her to head off before she, too, stood and brushed dirt off of the back of her jeans.

By the time she got back to her bicycle Abigail had already disappeared inside, and Vicky was surprised to find Scellia still napping away soundly within the wheelbarrow. Vicky gave it a few little taps, and the dragon woke up with a quiet snort. "Hey, I brought you a snack." She pulled a small napkin bundle out of her pocket as the dragon sat up to rapt attention, even pushing herself up with her hind legs to better sniff at the paper-wrapped package.

As soon as Vicky started to unwrap it, Scellia snagged it away with her claws. "Hey!" She couldn't stay mad for long, however, as Scellia quickly ripped the napkin apart to get at the food inside, drawing a smile from the farmer. She'd saved the dragon a little portion of the turkey sandwich she'd gotten for dinner.

As Vicky climbed onto her bike and pulled away from Pierre's store, she could hear Scellia munching away on the end of the sandwich she'd saved.

Not bad for a Friday night.


	8. Questions and Surprises

The next few days on Finley Farm passed uneventfully, Vicky spent most of the day Saturday planting new seeds in the fields she'd prepared and she took Sunday off to relax, enjoying the work she'd done over the week with a glass of water, relaxing on a chair on the porch of her house. The place needed work, most of the farm was still a mess, and the house was still in imminent danger of collapsing around her, but at least she was reasonably established. Not bad for a week's work, really.

She hadn't heard from Abigail all day Saturday, but Sunday morning she'd finally gotten a text. Apparently the shrine Vicky'd seen in their house had been placed there by a prior owner, and Pierre and Caroline hadn't had the heart to tear it down. A few of the villagers still came in to worship every Sunday to Yoba, and according to Abigail she spent most of the day in her room, catching up on schoolwork or surfing the web or playing games.

It seemed like an okay sort of arrangement to Vicky, but she'd extended an invitation to Abigail anyway, saying that she could come by any time she wanted, but especially Sundays if she felt like getting out of there instead of being cooped up in her room. The response had been noncommittal but at least it wasn't a no, and Vicky figured she was probably still torn up over Sebastian. She didn't really hold it against her friend if she needed a few days to herself.

Around noon Vicky figured she should probably get off her rear and do something, and decided that going to go see the Wizard was as good as anything. Maybe he could even shed some light on this nonsense going on with the Junimo and Scellia. The little dragon had curled up under her chair to nap while Vicky relaxed, and the farmer had been glad to have some peace and quiet. It's not like Scellia was a burden, but she was an energetic little thing, always scurrying around and running in circles in the house, stealing food, running off with items or tools. She'd even found a little pile of small objects under her bed, nothing particularly valuable, but Scellia had already run off with her phone once and it'd probably happen again.

Waking the little dragon to tell her where she was going, Scellia trotted off after Vicky with her head held high. _I guess she likes going to see old Rasmodius._ Vicky detached the trailer from her bike by undoing the knot of the rope, and once Scellia was secure on her shoulder, she took off toward the south through the same trail she'd used before.

She passed Marnie feeding her animals, waving toward the woman, and even saw Leah out picking berries or something from a bush, but her attention was turned elsewhere as the farmer passed, so Vicky didn't bother waving. It only took a few minutes for her to arrive at the Wizard's tower, the bike proving to be an excellent gift for her mobility's sake. She dismounted and headed up to the door, and once again it opened before she even had a chance to knock.

Once she was inside, Scellia hopped off of her shoulders and pranced over to Rasmodius, where the Wizard was once again standing near his cauldron, though it was bubbling blue this time. He passed something small out of his pocket to the little dragon, who quickly ran off under a table to begin issuing 'tink tink' noises. He'd likely given her another fragment of amethyst for her to chew on. She didn't seem to actually eat the stuff, just gnaw on it like a chew toy, and at least three fragments had been in the little hoard under Vicky's bed...

"I see you've returned." Rasmodius began, his other hand holding up a book he seemed to be reading from.

"Yeah. I went out to the Community Center, had a look." Vicky put her hands on her pockets as she stood nearby. She really needed to buy some new clothes, she still only had one pair of jeans.

"Oh? Did that go well?" He tossed some kind of dust into the cauldron, which shifted to a deeper purple.

"Sort of. I met the Junimos."

"Really?" This time he actually stopped what he was doing, closing the book and leaving the cauldron to bubble. He stepped closer, his robes swishing quietly across the floor, letting Vicky get a better look at his clothing. It was covered in embroidery of an assumedly-mystical nature, though she didn't know if that was for fashion's sake or if it actually served some purpose.

"Yeah. There was some kind of plaque on the floor, and when I tried to read it, they... 'spoke' to me or something."

"Did they now." He leaned closer, as if looking through Vicky's eyes rather than into them, searching for something. "And?"

"I could understand them. They want items for reagents or ingredients, or for magical properties, I don't know. They said they'd help around town if their requests were filled."

"Sounds like you have a job to do then." He stood up again, letting out a quiet sigh as he did, moving back over to his cauldron. "I wonder if you could actually understand them, or they simply imparted understanding..." He put a hand on his chin as he gazed into the cauldron.

"Well it was more of a... vision or something, than anything. Kind of unsettling-"

"Ah, imparted then", he interjected.

"But I felt... safe? Afterward? I don't really know how to explain it. I could definitely read the other plaques though." She shrugged, pulling one hand out of her pocket to accent the gesture before she returned it to it's confines.

"Other plaques? Please continue." He waved a hand vaguely in her direction as he opened his book again.

"Yeah. One in every room of the Community Center. Some wanted fish, some wanted vegetables, some wanted random items I'd assume you could get from a farm. One even just wants amounts of money placed on it."

"That's rather interesting. Perhaps this is why you were called here. The Junimo were searching for someone able to see them and fulfill their requests, and you appear able."

"I was actually hoping you might know. What with the vision you had, and all."

"My foretelling? All I was informed was that a 'descendant of Finley' would return, and that the land would be 'reclaimed'. I assume they were talking about your farm." He remained quiet for a moment as he read through the book. "It mentioned nothing of the Junimo."

"So you know about as much as I do, then."

"Oh no.", he laughed. "I know a great deal more. But as to your purpose, I am as ignorant as you. I believe you will have to find it out for yourself." He lowered the book slightly so that he could look at her, but his expression was a bit more warm than last time she'd visited.

"So what should I do? I'm a little bit lost here. I've got a dragon who likes to follow me around", she gestured to Scellia, who glanced up at the word 'dragon', but quickly returned to chomping on her gemstone, "I've got little marshmallow guys who want random crap-"

"I believe they would take offense to that."

"- Little fuzzballs then. Whatever. I don't know what they are. And then apparently the land itself can think and wants me to farm it, as crazy as that sounds to me. It all sounds crazy now that I think about it. I blame you." She pointed toward the Wizard.

"Me? Whatever for?"

"You made me drink that green stuff and pass out and now all this crap is happening."

"That was simply to open your eyes. The visions are simply a side-effect of the magic of the area that had been trying to reach you finally being able to. What you saw was likely an amalgamation of all the signals you missed."

"... okay. Though that doesn't make a lot of sense." She shrugged. "Kind of weird to see tiny little versions of people you met, though.", she grumbled.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nevermind. Anyway, what should I do?" She looked to him again, though he appeared to be engrossed in his book.

"I would do as they ask." He glanced toward her again. "Grow your crops, reclaim the farm, deliver them the items they request, whether that's by buying them or producing them yourself. Make a list, check it off as you go.", he made a motion as if swiping a pen across paper. "It will take time, I'm sure, but the rewards will likely be worth it."

Vicky sighed softly. "Great."

Vicky soon returned home, Scellia in tow, and spent the rest of her afternoon cleaning and getting her house in a little bit better shape. Sure enough, Scellia ran off with her phone again, twice, and the second time she even found the little shit going through her pictures. Cheeks red, she swiped the phone back from the dragon, drawing a rather angry face from the little thing. "There are things in there forest guardians shouldn't see."

Scellia blew her a raspberry.

Bright and early Monday morning, Vicky headed outside to see how her farm had fared overnight. Everything appeared fine, though she'd have to do some gardening to get rid of a few weeds that had sprung up. Apparently even they grew quickly. She glanced to Scellia as she checked her mail. "So, you control plants and stuff right, grant blessings?"

Scellia looked up to her, considered, then nodded a few times.

"What about weeds? Can you stop those from growing?"

Scellia shook her head, then trotted over to one such plant. She stuck her head in, gripped the weed with her teeth and yanked, pulling the entire thing out, roots and all. Vicky was impressed.

"Good job."

The little dragon practically beamed, and Vicky swore if she was a dog her tail would be wagging.

"Oh well, more work for me to do I guess."

She flipped through the mail, most of it just messages from some of the villagers that she'd have to reply to, asking how she was doing, inviting her to dinner, talking about Friday, things like that. One message in particular stuck out, however, a message from Lewis about an upcoming Festival in town.

 _"Vicky,_

 _As Mayor, it is my duty to inform you that in just a few days we will be holding the Egg Festival in town, from 9:00am to 2:00pm. If you wish to attend, please wear something festive, though if you have nothing available I'm sure the townsfolk won't mind. There will be a Egg Hunt contest with a reward, as well as several booths set up with produce and other items for sale. Of particular interest to you may be the Strawberry Seeds, as this is the only time of the year that Pierre is able to get a supply of them, and they usually sell out quickly._

 _Hope to see you there,_  
 _Mayor Lewis"_

Vicky let out a quiet little 'huh' as she read over the letter, flipping it over to make sure there was nothing on the underside. "Guess I have to buy a new shirt after all."

When she went inside to check her phone and put the letters on the counter, she realized she'd gotten a message on her phone. She flipped it open to find a text from Abigail. 'B there soon. Want 2 hang.' She let out a little noise and grinned, tossing the thing back on her bed. "Awww yeah."

When Abigail arrived, Vicky was currently bent over in the garden, pulling weeds up from around the plants that had begun to grow over the weekend. Once this was done she'd water them, make sure everything was in order, and then probably just work on wrangling more of her farm into shape. She still had to figure out what to do about the trees. She could cut them down, sure, but that'd leave massive stumps everywhere that she'd not be able to deal with on her own... Maybe Scellia had an idea.

Abigail laughed when she saw Vicky on her hands in knees in the dirt. "You know, I was starting to wonder if you actually did any farming. Certainly didn't act like a farmer Friday."

Vicky was glad to see her smile, but she could tell that it was more withdrawn than normal. At least she was trying, though. "Yep. You helped me haul in the parsnips, those were all mine."

"Never know. You could have been just trying to show off or something." She shrugged, then headed off to go lean on the mailbox to watch. "So what are you doing now?"

"I am pulling weeds. Things grow faster here, and that doesn't just include vegetables. I think after a few rounds of growing things, though, it should clear out a little more. The land's still 'wild', you know?" She sat up and wiped her forehead off, having finished clearing the row while talking. "I've been trying to read a little bit on my phone where I can, study stuff."

"So I'm not the only one in school, then. Yours is just a little... you know, dirtier." Abigail gestured to the plants and dirt across Vicky's clothes. "Are you going to come to the festival, by the way? Do you know about it yet?"

"Yeah, I got a message from Lewis this morning telling me about it. I'll have to buy a shirt or something." She looked down to her own black and pink. "I don't think a pink heart on black qualifies as festive."

"Ah, I doubt anyone in town would really care. I'm going to wear a dress I bought, though." Abigail did a little twirl, like she was already wearing it, despite wearing a denim vest and a blue shirt with purple shorts and boots.

Vicky looked up, an eyebrow raised. "Really? You in a dress?"

"Yeah!" Abigail put her hands on her hips with a soft huff. "I can wear dresses too."

"I dunno, you just didn't strike me as the dress type."

"And why not?"

"Well, it's the whole goth thing you've got going on. The vests, the dark-colored clothes, the choker, the boots. Just doesn't say "I wear dresses in public" to me, is all." Vicky vaguely waved a hand. "I don't mean any insult by it."

Abigail watched her for a moment, then shrugged. "I'd suggest you wear a dress too, but I guess it'd be a little harder to get you into one."

Vicky laughed. "Yeah. I haven't worn a dress since I was five."

"So you'd be like the 'man' in any relationship you were in, then?" Abigail asked.

Vicky pursed her lips a bit. That question always irritated her, like someone always had to take the place of the guy whenever two women were together. She wasn't sure how to answer without sounding like she was upset, though she decided to try. "No, we'd both be women. Nobody 'has to' be the man, Abigail." She glanced up to her friend, hoping she could understand. "Sometimes the dynamics work like that, but I like things equal. Both partners, nobody over anyone else, that sort of thing."

Abigail could tell she'd said something wrong, and her cheeks flushed a little bit. "Sorry. I'm still... Everyone in town's straight. Mostly."

"Mostly?" Vicky raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you hear stories. And Leah isn't. She moved here to get away from an ex, I've heard her ex was female."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess that sounds about right. She's okay with people talking about it?"

"Yeah, she's never complained. I don't think she's really looking at the moment though. Focusing on her art."

"Ah, oh well. I don't know if I'm really looking either." _Not because I'm not interested, I'm just... hoping._ She knew she shouldn't put all her eggs in one basket, especially since she didn't know if the basket even **wanted** her eggs to begin with... that sounded weird in her head.

"Oh? Nobody taken your interest yet?"

"I just don't know if I'm ready yet. Too much to do, too much going on. I barely know anyone in town, I think I've talked to you more than anyone else. It's too early to make any decisions I think." Aaand question deflected. She didn't want to be too overt yet. Make sure she knew more about what was going on and whether or not Abigail would even be interested...

"Makes sense, I guess."

"So what do you do for fun around here?" Time to change the subject up a little, she thought.

"Well, before you moved in I actually used to come here and explore. Walk through the fields, the forest that sprung up, spend time to myself."

"Really?" Vicky gestured with an arm as she stood. "You still can, if you want. I don't mind, and it's not like I'm really using the land. I've hardly gotten it cleared, much less in use."

"Are you sure? I don't want to disrupt anything or be in the way."

"No it's totally fine. Knock yourself out. Have fun, do whatever it is that you do, out there." She moved to the crate where she kept the tools when she wasn't using them, then headed to the hose to start filling the watering can.

"Do you want to know?" What an odd question to ask, but Vicky shrugged.

"Yeah, sure. Just don't tell me you're doing anything illegal, at least at the moment I have deniability." Vicky laughed.

Abigail chuckled too. "No, no. I mean, if you ask my parents it probably _should_ be illegal, but it's nothing like that."

"Alright, what is it then?"

"I practice with a sword sometimes."

"A sword!? Really?" Vicky smiled a bit, standing as she finished filling the can. No wonder Abigail was in shape, if she was training with a sword.

"Yeah." Abigail bristled, and Vicky could tell that she was used to being talked down to.

"Hey, calm down. I was just asking. I'll be the last person to tell you what you can and cannot do."

Abigail let out a sigh, then nodded. "Sorry. Everyone I tell tends to make fun of me for it. I want to join the Adventurer's Guild some day."

"There's an Adventurer's Guild?"

"Yeah. They've been closed recently because the mines were blocked off by something Joja was doing. I think they were trying to dig into it to get materials and half-collapsed the whole thing. They should be clearing it out again within a week or so. I've been training while they were closed so I can try to join after they reopen."

"Well, hey. Good luck! The way you talk about it makes it seem like you're really set on it, so hopefully you do well."

"Yeah. I think my parents might try to keep me from joining, they think it wouldn't be safe." She followed Vicky as she set about watering her plants, sprinkling each one with the liquid it'd need. "The Guild takes precautions, they come looking for you if you're gone too long, and most of the monsters we've seen in the mines aren't extremely dangerous. They're usually just after whatever materials you're carrying, that's what they eat."

"And there's monsters too? I mean, I guess I should have figured, given that you were training with a sword and there's an adventurer's guild and stuff, but... I never would have guessed stuff like this existed out here."

Abigail shrugged. "Well, you're here now, right? Things aren't the same, but they're not bad either."

Vicky smirked, glancing at her friend. "No, they're really not."

Abigail grinned back, giving Vicky an odd look. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing at all. I'm, uh, done with my chores though." She patted her watering can. "Anything you want to do?"

"Have any food? We could go into town and get something if you don't."

Vicky grinned. "Actually, that'd be nice. I should take a shower first, get some of this funk off. Do you mind?"

"No, not at all. I'll go for a walk."

"Alright, see you in a little bit then." Vicky waved, then headed off into the house to take a shower.

* * *

The forest of Vicky's farm was quiet, peaceful, and there was a reason that Abigail had come here to wander and keep to herself. It seemed just as quiet as ever to the purple haired woman, even though the forest had shrunk somewhat through Vicky's efforts. Interestingly, she didn't think that it really seemed to mind. If Scellia was showing up to the farmer and even helping her out, that meant they were on her side, and Abigail thought that was alright. It was interesting to think about, that someone so new could make such an impact, and be confronted by things that she hadn't seen even after years of trying with Rasmodius' help.

Abigail heard a rustling behind her and turned, curious... only to see a small black head with purple hair in a little pouf and wide eyes staring back at her from around a tree.


	9. The Egg Festival

Vicky stepped out of the house a few minutes later, towel still wrapped around her neck, only to find her farm deserted. Scellia wasn't even sitting on the porch or her bed or any of the spots she usually lounged around in. She looked back and forth, down the road, into the forest, around the back of the house- nope, nobody to be found anywhere. "Where the hell did they go?", she muttered to the quiet air.

Her answer came soon enough, as quiet giggles echoed from the trees at the edge of the 'tamed' part of the farm, and soon enough a familiar head of purple hair could be seen moving back and forth between the trees and bushes and tall grass at the edge. "Hey! Abigail!" Vicky raised a hand and waved. "I'm ready when you are!"

She continued drying her hair with the towel, already having put on shoes and everything else she'd need to get going, waiting for her friend to return from whatever it was she was doing in the woods. Still no sign of Scellia, though...

Eventually her questions were answered as Abigail burst from the trees, Scellia in hot pursuit on extended wings. Still laughing, Abigail swatted at the little dragon as she ducked and dove at her hair, pulling little strands this way and that, though it was always released before it was tugged too hard. Eventually Scellia alighted on Abigail's head, leaving Vicky smiling in disbelief.

"You can see her now? When did that happen?"

"I don't know! I went for a walk while you were in the shower, and she showed herself after stepping out from behind a tree. I said hello, she sniffed at me a few times, and then she jumped onto my shoulder. She's really cute!" Abigail reached up to gently scratch at the underside of the little dragon's chin, drawing a purr that Vicky could hear from this far away, and the dragon reacted by flopping flat along her shoulders and shoving her face against the scratching fingers.

"... huh. Well, at least I don't have to wonder if I'm going crazy. Rasmodius could see her too, but he's a wizard and whatever and can use magic. Can you?"

Abigail shook her head. "No. He's the only one who can, and he said it's only because of where his tower's built. He's 'immersed in it', according to him. He's taught me a bit but unless I move into his tower I'll never be able to do what he can."

"Right. Anyway.", Vicky tossed the towel into her house and shut the door. "Ready to go?"

"Yep!"

Vicky returned home after a few hours in town with Abigail. She'd brought her bike, though Abigail had walked, and the whole trip had taken most of the rest of her night. They'd just spent the time talking, Abigail telling Vicky about some of the history of the town, some of the things she liked, how she'd started training with Rasmodius and general knowledge like that, with Vicky sharing some of the same in return. How she'd found out about Stardew, why she'd wanted to study architecture, and why she'd finally decided to leave. It had been nice, but she'd had to mentally remind herself a few times that it hadn't been a date- just two friends hanging out and having dinner. She flopped herself into bed afterward, Scellia having returned with Vicky after swiping bites from both of their plates all night and taking up her position at the end of the bed. Things were going pretty well, so far...

Life passed quickly in Stardew Valley and Pelican Town when things went well, and the days seemed to melt by as Vicky established a routine. Wake up in the morning, head outside and weed the plants, harvest what was ready(she was getting good at figuring out what was ready to come out of the ground), and water what wasn't, then head into town to get seeds if she needed them. She left produce in her box at the end of the day, and Lewis usually dropped off money or delivered letters before she woke up, though she'd caught him a few times when he was late or she'd woken up a little earlier than usual.

Scellia helped out around the farm, and Vicky found that when she was occupied she was much less of a minor annoyance than usual. The best days were harvest days, because Scellia loved divebombing plants and trying to yank them out on the way past, and she usually wore herself out doing that in a couple of hours. She was exceedingly quick in the air, probably owing to the fact her wings were so big and seemed flexible enough to give her the control she needed. She still seemed to find the time to steal Vicky's phone whenever possible though, and she'd had to take to leaving it password locked so the little dragon stopped downloading match-3 games. How she'd learned to use a phone to that degree mystified Vicky, but she definitely wasn't ignorant of how the modern world worked.

As the days passed by, Vicky soon enough found herself with a fair amount of money in her pocket despite her seed purchases, though it wasn't yet quite enough for a house upgrade. She was doing better than she'd thought she'd be by now, but she imagine she owed more than a little of her success to the little dragon who helped her out around the farm.

And so it was that she found herself on the morning of the Egg Festival, some extra change in her pocket and a bit of a spring in her step, ready to go into town and mingle with the townsfolk for the day. She'd planned that nothing would need harvesting today, saving her some time, so all she had to do was weed the plants and water them and she'd be ready. A shower and a new shirt that she'd bought- a nice rich purple with a pink flower on the front- and she was ready to head into town.

She gathered Scellia onto her shoulders and hopped onto her bike, and pedaled off into town.

When she arrived, it was to find that she was very nearly the last one here, with only a man she didn't recognize with an eyepatch arriving after her. Everyone in town seemed to have put on their best for the festival, and she was glad she'd gotten a new shirt. Her normal one was getting a little bit faded from all the sun and washing she'd put it through. She'd found a few items at Pierre's a few of the times she'd looked in his shop, but her wardrobe still needed expanding. She knew there were more clothes at JojaMart, but she'd rather not give them the extra money when they were already doing enough to strangle Pelican Town as it was.

She set her bike to the side and began to mingle with the townsfolk, taking the time to introduce herself to the few she hadn't met yet.

"You must be Clint", she asked once she stepped up alongside a guy standing near one of the food tables that had been set up thanks to Gus and a few of the other townsfolk. Vicky held out her hand to the man, a somewhat barrel-chested fellow with short-cut hair and hands that looked like they'd seen better days. It also helped that he tended to smell a bit of smoke.

"Yeah! You must be Vicky." He shook her hand in return, and she found his grip practically crushing. "How are your tools holding up? Doing well?"

"For the most part. The hoe's starting to get a little blunt and I think I've bent the nose of my pickaxe."

"Oh that's no good at all. Hey, if you have the cash and a bit of metal, I can forge you new tools. I even have iron available for purchase if you want to go that route, though it'll be a bit more expensive."

"Yeah? About how much?"

He put a hand to his chin. "If you bring me the materials, I can get you a tool upgraded, new haft, new head, everything, for about 5,000G each. That's for Iron. Above that is Iridium but I don't have any of that in stock and I honestly couldn't tell you where to get it."

"Oh. Wow, uh. That's kind of expensive."

"Yeah, I know. But it's a lot of work, and I wouldn't really be able to do any of my orders for a day or two while I finished yours off. Steel's hard to work with, it has to be heated and re-heated often, and it takes a lot of coal to get the forge that hot. It's worse if you wanted me to provide the metal myself."

"Jeeze. Where could I get iron from, then? If I was going to bring you the materials."

"I can answer that." The man with the eyepatch stepped forward, extending a hand. He was older, with greying hair, and a deep voice that reminded Vicky more than a little of her grandfather. His hand was rough, callused, someone used to working, and he wore a cloak around his shoulder, and even seemed to have a limp. Someone who had seen and done quite a bit in his life, judging by the experienced air about him. "Name's Marlon, I run the local Adventurer's Guild."

"Oh! I heard about you, Abigail told me." She gave his hand a shake. _Damn, everyone in town today's crushing my hand, I'll have to be careful._

"She did? I know she's been thinking of joining for a while now, though she's never approached us officially. We'd love to have her, new blood's hard to come by these days." He placed his hands in his pockets as he glanced to Clint. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine, continue."

"You can get iron in the mines, though you'd have to go down a few levels to do so. They've been largely abandoned for years after the monsters showed up. Joja tried clearing them out but they just succeeded in collapsing the whole place, only got it cleared out a few days ago. Found a whole cave system in there, most of it untapped... if anybody was to get down there they'd have about the whole place to themselves." He glanced to Vicky.

"You don't look like you know how to use a sword but I could teach you if you had the time to spare. Or if you could find someone to escort you down. It'll be dangerous but nothing in there is something you couldn't handle with a bit of grit and determination, and we'd send in someone after you if you didn't turn up within a day or so." He nodded. "Or you could pay Clint the extra money and have him order it for you."

"I'll have to keep all that in mind. I wouldn't really have the time for an expedition at the moment, but it sounds like it might be worth it to save the money." She glanced to Clint. "No offense."

"No, it's fine." He even gave her a smile. "Just means I don't have to order more. Plus if you bring me any extra ore I could pay you for it, it'd save me money in the long run."

"Definitely. I'll see what I can do and let you know." He nodded, and Vicky excused herself from the two of them.

She found Robin standing near Sebastian and two people she didn't recognize. When Vicky approached, she was beckoned over by the taller man.

"Hey! You must be Vicky." He was tall and dark-skinned, with short hair and a crisp-looking Polo. "I'm Demetrius, Robin's husband, and this is Maru." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and tugged her close.

Vicky smiled, nodding to Maru and Sebastian, then Robin. "I've met her already at the Saloon. It's nice to meet you as well." Sebastian and Maru waved back, though Sebastian looked sullen at having to be out in public.

"Definitely." He looked to Robin. "I heard you might be in the market for an upgrade to your house."

Vicky grinned, and turned to Robin. "About that, actually."

"Yeah?" The woman perked up a bit at the mention of possible work.

"I managed to collect a bit of wood, and I've broken up a few stones around the farm. I don't know how to shape them to your needs, but it's all ready for you to use and stacked out behind the house. I'm just short a bit of cash as far as an upgrade goes."

"Great! That's awesome. I'll definitely keep an eye out for you once you're ready to upgrade, and if you end up with any extra materials I'll be glad to take them off your hands."

Vicky nodded, then turned back to Demetrius with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I've just been meaning to tell her about that."

"Totally fine. Listen, if you ever want to come visit, even if it's just to hang out, that's fine. We've also got some trees around the house that you could cut down if you needed the wood for something. I run a lab out of the house, if you come across anything interesting I wouldn't mind having a look at it. I'm also working on a project that I might need your help with."

"Oh? What's that?"

"There's an old cave on your farm that would be perfect for an experiment I'd like to run. It's not ready to be implemented yet, but I'll be in contact when I'm more ready for a field test."

"It's nothing dangerous, is it?"

"Not at all! Unless you're afraid of bats or mushrooms." He laughed, then looked serious for a moment. "You're not, are you?"

"No." Vicky smirked a bit. "Sounds interesting though."

"I'd hope so! I'll let you know when I'm closer to completion, alright?"

"Sure!" She spotted someone else she hadn't met before though, and quickly excused herself from the four of them.

He stood on the outskirts of the group, looking like he wanted to approach but was either too shy or didn't feel like he belonged. He wore a yellow shirt or body-suit thing that Vicky couldn't really place where it'd come from, and looked... for lack of a better word, wild. Long hair, long beard, fairly unkempt. Vicky approached, and he scrutinized her closely, almost suspiciously, and she decided to stand a few feet away to give him time to get more comfortable with her, at least for a few minutes, before she spoke. "I've never seen you around town before."

"I don't live in town, I live north near the mountains." His voice was rough, like it didn't get used too often.

"Oh, that'd explain it, I guess. I'm Vicky, the new farmer in town. It's nice to meet you."

He considered for a moment, crossing his arms, even chewing on his lip for a few seconds. "I'm Linus."

She smiled, though she decided she didn't want to stick around too long- he didn't really seem like he wanted company. "Do you want some food? There's plenty here."

"I ate before most got here. Some don't like to see me, but Gus made sure to know I was welcome."

Vicky couldn't help but smile at that. "I'm glad. He seems like a nice guy."

"He is." Linus nodded, then turned away, and Vicky figured the conversation was over. He seemed like a nice enough guy, even if he was a bit short on words.

The last two people she needed to meet were standing on the edge of the group near Alex. An old woman, and an old man looking somewhat cross, in a wheelchair. Vicky made her way over, greeting Alex first since she recognized him. "Hello, Alex. Nice to meet you."

"Hey, Vicky." He reached out, gently tapping the older-woman's shoulder to get her attention, she'd been fussing over the man's jacket while he glanced toward Vicky every now and again.

"Hm? Oh!" She started somewhat when she realized Vicky was there. "Hello! My name's Evelyn. And this is George. Say hello, George."

The old man grumped quietly, but eventually spoke. "Hi. Good to see you."

Vicky grinned a bit, they reminded her of some of the older people she'd known from her apartment building. "My name's Vicky, it's good to meet you."

"The new farmer! I take it things are going well? How is life on that old farm?"

"They're good. Going good. I'm clearing the land out steadily, and it's still growing things just fine. It's peaceful out there, much different than the city."

"I'm glad." Evelyn leaned over onto George's wheelchair to make it easier for her to stand. "It's a shame about your Grandfather, he was such a kind old man. We knew him back when the three of us were younger."

"You did? What was it like?"

"Oh, the town was bigger back then but everyone still knew everyone else. Isn't that right George?" He grumbled quietly, and she seemed satisfied with that. "He was a fixture around here. Could have been Mayor, if he wanted, but he never seemed to desire it. He and his wife always won the produce showing in the Fall every year."

Vicky had never known her grandmother, as she'd died before she was born. "What was she like?"

"Oh? Well..." The woman patted her chin with a shaking hand. "She was beautiful, I remember that much. Your Grandfather smiled like she sun when she was around. A little shorter than you were, they made quite the couple. She'd moved in from out of town, just like you have now. He had too, of course, but long before she did, when he was around your age."

Vicky nodded, smiling slightly. Some of this she hadn't known. Her grandfather had already been ill when she was young, and she'd never made it out to the farm while he was alive. "I see. Do you mind if I stop by sometime and we can talk? I'd love to learn more about what they were like when they were younger."

"Not at all, dear. We don't get out as much as we used to, it's hard to move as much when you're old."

"I understand. I'll keep an eye out. And thank you for the bike."

"It's no problem, dear. It was your Grandmother's, before it was ours."

Vicky's eyebrows went up. "Really!?" She gained a new appreciation for it, she had no idea it was so old. "That's amazing."

She nodded. "George here", she patted his shoulder, "Maintained it and used it years ago. When he couldn't anymore, we still kept it in shape. We knew someone would need it some day."

Vicky grinned. That was certainly something. "Well, I really appreciate it. I had no idea."

"Of course, dear."

Vicky excused herself after speaking to them a little more, as some of the people were beginning to gather near the middle of the square, including Mayor Lewis. She started to join them, until she realized Pierre had set up a booth just on the edge near his shop. _Right! Strawberries!_

She moved closer, taking a look. He still had quite a few seeds left, though it was clear others had been buying from him too. She pursed her lips, looking them over, and put her hand in her pocket while she thought.

"Hey, Vicky. Thinking about buying some seeds?"

"Yeah. Trying to figure out how much I have and how much I can spend."

"Well, if you want my recommendation, buy as many as you can. Then, save them for when next year rolls around, plant them early, and you can harvest them all season."

"Really? Hmmm..." She pulled a few coins out of her pocket. She had a bit of money, she could definitely afford them, but it would put her very far away from getting her house fixed. She didn't really mind, the house wasn't in that bad of shape, but she wouldn't be able to get new tools any time soon either. It was really a choice between newer, better tools, or investing in seeds for next year so that they could give her a big windfall. She jingled the coins in her pocket, trying to think, and even glanced to the side to see what Scellia thought. _Nope, still asleep. Must find talking boring..._

"How much will this get me?" She pulled the majority of the coins from her pocket. It was most of her money, but she imagined she'd be able to survive until the rest of her harvests came up, and things would be ready within the next couple of days. She just kept a few hundred G for herself in case she wanted food or an emergency popped up.

"Uuh... most of what I have left, actually." He laughed quietly. "I'll save them until you're ready to leave, is that alright?"

"Definitely. I'll come pick them up later, okay?" She placed the money on his booth, then turned away to see what was going on with the rest of the townsfolk.

When she arrived, Lewis was already in the middle of talking about the Egg Hunt, and Vicky was glad she'd decided to pay attention, otherwise she'd have missed it.

"- highlight of today's festivities... the Annual Spring Egg Hunt!" He raised his arms into the air, and a few people cheered. Vicky had expected the kids to be excited, Jas and Vincent, but to her surprise Abigail looked just as ready to go as the both of them. Sam and Maru were ready to go as well, each one with a basket. Vicky started to worry she wouldn't have one, until someone tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned to find Caroline, who handed her a basket with a smile. "Glad to see you participating. But you better hurry, once it starts. Abby usually wins, so you'll need to be quick if you want to beat her."

Vicky laughed. "Really? Wow, I never would have guessed."

Caroline nodded before she moved away. "Yep, every year since she was little."

Vicky turned back right as Lewis continued.

He lowered his hands and waved them toward Jas and Vincent, who were practically jumping up and down for joy. "Calm down now, kiddos." He smiled again. "You're going to need all your energy if you hope to find the most eggs and take home the exclusive prize." He held up a basket that was next to him on the ground. "You will have five minutes to fill your basket with as many eggs as you can. They are hidden around town in exclusive hiding places, so look hard! We've marked off the area with barriers, if you go past them you'll be disqualified. If you pick up an egg after the five minutes, you'll also be disqualified! Those are the only rules, other than have fun!"

He looked around to the participants, and Vicky clung tightly to her basket. "Everyone ready?" When they nodded, he raised his hand into the air again. "Then let the Egg Hunt..." he let his hand fall. "Begin!"

Vicky turned, and as quickly as she could began to look for the eggs. She hadn't been here that long, so she hadn't realized that would have been her chance to find where they'd been hidden! Though she imagined there wouldn't be many in the town square for exactly that reason... She hurried off into town, hunting around, checking under houses and bushes, and it was in the roots of a tree that she found her first egg. "Aha!"

As she turned, she saw Abigail run past, already two eggs in her basket, looking like she was having the time of her life. Vicky laughed, though she quickly recovered to continue on her way.

She found one more under the steps of the Saloon, one near the graveyard sitting next to a tombstone, one near the river in a bush. She found another one near Sam's house in a plant near the door, one more near Emily's house under the steps. She circled around their house, finding one more near a fence post, and then one more in the roots of the tree she and Abigail had sat under days ago. She continued forward, passing Sam who'd found one in a bush, and then Jas who found one in the base of a lamppost. Knowing time was running out and she wouldn't have too much longer, she discovered one near Pierre's feet at his booth- "Sorry!"- and then spotted one more at the base of his stairs. That would make ten.

However, as she moved to grab it, Vincent ran up just a few seconds too late. He looked dejected as he started to turn away, until Vicky stopped him. "Vincent! Hey. You got here first."

He gave her a bemused look. "No I didn't."

She laughed. "Okay, okay. But, uh. I didn't pick it up, whoops!" She quickly scurried away, leaving the egg to him. She just picked up another one near Evelyn and George's house when she heard 'Time's up!' called from the Town Square.

She looked down at her basket with a little frown, she hadn't even found that many in the five minutes they were given. But, she decided to head back anyway, not wanting to break the rules, even though she had to facepalm when she spotted one more hiding in a bush she'd run past. Oh well.

She returned along with everyone else, and to her surprise it didn't seem like the others had very many eggs at all... Sure enough, when the eggs were counted, she'd come in first, with ten...

That is, until Abigail presented her basket. Lewis quickly got to counting. "Eight, Nine, Ten... Eleven! For the sixth year in a row, Abigail has won!"

The purple-haired woman grinned, even turning to the side to glance at Vicky and stick her tongue out at her in a mocking gesture. Vicky did the same, though she supposed 2nd place wasn't so bad, especially for the first time...

"And here's your prize." Lewis handed her a gift-wrapped box as people began to dissipate, back to their food and conversations.

Abigail walked off, holding her box, and Vicky decided to follow after stacking her basket with the others where they'd been returned.

She was 'led' off near the tree where they'd spoken the other day, and she stepped up beside her friend to have a look. "What's inside?"

Abigail started for a moment, until she realized it was just Vicky. "How do you do that?"

Vicky grinned. "Do what?"

"I can hardly tell you're here most of the time, you're too quiet."

Vicky laughed. "I guess I should start making a noise or something when I approach. Maybe a fooooog hoooorn." She lowered her voice and raised the volume as she spoke, drawing a giggle from her friend and a grumble from Scellia as she slowly woke. "Oh, now you're awake.", she said as she smirked at the dragon.

Scellia hissed at her and crawled onto Abigail's shoulders instead. "Guess she thinks I'll be quieter." Sure enough, the little thing curled back up to go back to sleep. Vicky was surprised she'd slept through the egg hunt, but she didn't seem much bothered by movement when she was sitting on someone.

"Maybe. Anyway, what's in the box?" Vicky gestured, even poking at the bow.

"Heeey. Mine. I won, not you." She pulled the box away so she could carefully pick at the paper.

"Yeah yeah. I would have tied with you if I didn't give up an egg."

"Oh suuuure you would have."

"No, really! I almost picked one up at Pierre's store, but Vincent got there a second later. I was going to grab but I stopped to tell him he could. If I'd just kept going, I probably would have even won because I saw one right after time was called."

Abigail pursed her lips as she listened, glancing up to Vicky as she spoke. Then she looked down as she pulled the bow apart gently enough that it came off in one piece, untying the paper around the box. She lifted it away, followed by the lid, to reveal a fancy-looking straw hat, complete with an egg-shaped brooch nested in a bow along the top.

"Nice haul."

Abigail smirked a bit, setting the box down so she could examine the hat with both hands. "Yeah. Emily makes them. I have two others like it at home, I keep them on a shelf to remind me of the festivals. Fall is my favorite time of year, but I like spring too. When the forest is quiet as the plants grow and new life springs from the dirt. I suppose that's why they call it spring, huh?" She turned to Vicky.

Somewhat taken aback, she shrugged. "I guess. I've never really thought about it, really."

"Not many people do. I guess it's Rasmodius and his lessons rubbing off on me." She looked down at the hat, then turned to Vicky. "Here." She gently rested the hat on her head.

"What? Why? I didn't win." She didn't take the hat off, though, watching Abigail.

"Because, if you're telling the truth you did win. And if you're not... I have two others. Plus it fits you, I think."

Vicky smirked. "Thanks."

She returned home hours later with her seeds, placing the bag in a cabinet in her kitchen. It was nearly nightfall, and she was exhausted. Aside from the egg hunt they'd done a carrot-eating contest, which she hadn't participated in, and a tandem egg-relay which she had. Abigail had asked her to be her partner, since she'd usually partnered with Sebastian, who had taken Sam as his partner this year. They hadn't won that one, Jas and Vincent must have been practicing with how fast they skittered along, and Vicky had tripped a couple times besides. Running was not really her strong suit.

Still, it had been a good day, as she lay on her bed on her back, gently petting Scellia with one hand, the little dragon rumbling away. She'd slept nearly the whole day, though she seemed to sleep pretty often anyway. Her other hand was gently twirling the hat she'd been given, watching as the ribbons along the sides shifted as the hat moved. Something about the way Abigail had looked at her when she was given the hat...

Nah, she was just imposing her own thoughts on things.

She sighed and turned over, clicking the button on her bedside lamp to turn it off. Hopefully there'd be lots more good days in the future.


	10. A Lil' Fishin'

The next morning, bright and early, Vicky sat up in bed and stretched, letting out a soft little yawn. She had some work to do around the farm, new crops to plant, Strawberry seeds to store, potentially a trip out to the mines to plan... She pushed herself out of bed, drawing a quiet grumble from the small dragon at the end of it who apparently decided to sleep in today, despite sleeping most of the day yesterday. She shrugged, and headed over toward the kitchen.

It was once she got into the kitchen that she realized it was raining, and her spirits sank. "Well, shit. I can't plant today." If she tried to put seeds in the ground while it was raining, they'd get washed up, and then either cook in the sun tomorrow or get eaten by birds. Speaking of birds... She glanced off toward the back storage room. She'd read about scarecrows and how they could sometimes save your crops from birds, and she'd bought the few supplies she'd need to make one. A strong board for the back, a straight stick for the arms, a pair of overalls, a sturdy old cloth hat, and some 'weatherproof' stuffing to fill the head with, along with cloth and an old shirt to put the whole thing together.

Her plans for the day shot thanks to the rain, she decided she'd go take care of the scarecrow instead. She'd been meaning to do it for a while anyway, and just hadn't on account of not actually having much time. She could go clear more of the forest, she figured she'd probably gotten about a quarter of the land reclaimed, but she really didn't relish the idea of trying to do heavy work in the rain.

She had herself a quick breakfast, just some eggs and toast. Around the time food was done her little companion made an appearance, sleepily dragging herself out of the bedroom on all fours, wings and tail drooping to the ground. "Did you sleep too long? You look a little bedraggled."

The little dragon didn't respond other than hopping up onto the table and stealing a piece of toast- Vicky had made extra just for this reason- and sleepily nibbling on it while sprawled out. Vicky smirked and reached out with her free hand, tousling the little hair pouf on top of the dragon's head. That got another response, another soft grumble, but she seemed too sleepy to really do much about it. Vicky shrugged, quickly finished her meal, and then headed off to gather up scarecrow supplies after she cleaned off the table.

Scellia still hadn't really moved, but she was looking a little more awake when Vicky put all her scarecrow items out on the table. The little dragon pushed herself to her feet and began sniffing at each item in turn, though eventually she lost interest and plopped down on the floor to pad off to the door. Vicky mentally made a note that she'd have to install a doggy door or something for her little friend, though she wondered if Scellia would actually need one... She gave a shrug and set to work.

Putting together a scarecrow was a relatively simple affair, nailing the stick to the board so that it wouldn't shift, dressing it, and filling the whole thing with stuffing were really the only difficult parts. It was around when she was stuffing the head that her little scaled friend reappeared, having wandered off to the bedroom- Vicky thought maybe she was going to nap again- only to return, two little amethysts held between her tiny teeth. Vicky raised an eyebrow curiously as the dragon jumped up onto the table and plopped the two gems down next to her hand, watching the dragon for some kind of reaction.

Scellia looked at the gems, to the scarecrow, to Vicky, and then back to the gems a few times, but when the farmer still didn't move she let out a soft little huff through her nose and picked up one of the gems in a paw. She placed it right on the scarecrow's head... where the eyes would be.

"You want me to put Amethysts as the eyes?" Vicky was surprised the little dragon would give up two gems like that, she'd been keeping them in the hoard under her bed.

Scellia nodded, holding the one gem in place with a paw, before placing the other one right where the other eye would have to be. Vicky smirked, shrugged, and then picked up a needle and thread. "Alright. I can sew them in. Hold them still?"

When the little dragon nodded, Vicky set to work, letting Scellia hold the gems in place while Vicky sewed around them. It was actually easier with her help since Scellia's little paws were more nimble than Vicky's larger fingers would have been. It only took a few minutes to get the gems secured in place, and Vicky sewed a little nose into the figure, along with a mouth with a crooked smile. She thought it looked more 'personal' than a normal smile, and her scarecrow would certainly stand out with gems for eyes- she'd just been planning on sticking buttons in place instead.

She glanced down to Scellia with a little smile. "Wanted to add your own touch to it?" When the dragon responded with a vigorous nod, Vicky couldn't help but laugh softly and gave her a little pet along her spine, to which the dragon responded with a quiet purr and an arch of her back. "Well, let's go stick this thing in the ground, and then I guess we can go into town. Can't do much work out here today." Scellia nodded again, and Vicky headed to grab an old coat she'd picked up out of the thrift section of Pierre's store.

Riding a bike in the rain probably wasn't her greatest idea, she could feel that she was getting wet even with her coat and hat, but at least it wouldn't take as long as walking even if she did end up more wet at the end. She'd intended to maybe go see Abigail, say hello, maybe grab some food, but right around the time she made it to the edge of town, Scellia curled up around her neck to keep out of the rain, she remembered an odd fact her dad used to tell her when she was little. _"Fish always bite more in rain."_

She couldn't for the life of her figure out why she'd thought of that until she remembered the old fisherman, Willy, who'd wanted a word. A soft 'oh' later, she turned her bike south to head toward the beach. A few people were out and about in town, she noticed Lewis and Emily and Gus, though other shapes were lost to the mist of the weather. She eventually did have to abandon her bike at the edge of the beach, trying to ride while the sand was like this would probably just end up with her stuck in mush, and it wasn't that far to walk besides.

Vicky noticed a light on in Elliot's shack and wondered how he was faring in this weather, but the little wisp of smoke from his chimney signaled that he was probably fine. She continued on her way to the pier and Willy's shop, though to her confusion it appeared closed... until she spotted out of the corner of her eye that he was here, just not where she'd expected him to be. He was standing on the edge of the dock, poncho around his shoulders, and sure enough he was fishing. She smirked slightly and glanced toward her little dragon friend as she walked toward him. "Fancy some fish for dinner?" That got a very enthusiastic nod from the dragon, though she didn't seem excited enough to venture out from under Vicky's collar.

She stepped up beside Willy as he reeled in his line, and the old fisherman hardly batted an eye when he glanced to his side to see her. "Ahoy there, lass. Fancied a bit of fishin' while we had some rain goin', were you lookin' to buy somethin' from the shop?"

"Actually, no. You offered to teach me to fish the other day? I thought I might catch you fishing out in the rain, figured I'd stop by."

He grinned at that, an old pipe clenched between his teeth. She figured it probably wasn't doing much more than catching rain at this point, but some habits die hard. "You actually stopped by at a great time, lass. You see this old rod, here?" He held it up as he attached the line to the pole itself, wrapping the hook around the rod. "This is my old pole. I just got back from a month-long fishing trip a day or so before you arrived, caught me a lot of good fish. Finally saved enough to buy me a new rod."

Vicky raised an eyebrow as he continued his story, but remained quiet to let him talk.

He looked down at it for a moment, letting his fingers run over the handle before he finally handed it to Vicky. "Here. I want you to have it. It's important to me that the art o' fishin' stays alive."

Vicky gave him a soft 'thank you' as she took it from him, running her own hands over the handle... it definitely looked like it had seen a lot of use, but was sturdy and well-maintained.

"And hey, maybe you'll buy somethin' from the shop once in a while." He let out a soft chuckle and clapped his hand to Vicky's shoulder. "Come, lass. You'll need a bit of instructin' if you'll want to be fishing up a good haul."

He turned to the sea and held out a hand, gesturing across the open expanse before him. "There's good water here in the valley. All kinds o' fish, every shape and size you can think of. We've got river fish, though you won't want to be fishin' for those in the river inside of town. Head outside town a ways; near Leah's hut is a good spot. We've got mountain fish, though the best spot is around near the Adventurer's Guild. Joja's got it all closed off for the moment, though, Marlon's the only one who can get back an' forth."

"Joja closed the Guild?"

"No, no. They damn near collapsed the mines, a big rockslide blocked the whole thing off. They just cleared it out, but they said they need a few more days for 'safety inspectin', I think they're just tryin' ta make sure that nobody else can get in until they haul off what they want from the place. But my favorite spot..." He gestured out in front of himself again, sweeping his hand in a wide arc. "Is this 'un. You'll catch all sorts of fish from the sea, lass. Big ones, little ones, squids and starfish, sometimes you'll even manage to hook a cucumber or two. And remember that which fish come around changes with the season, too, so you'll always want to keep an eye out."

It was a lot to take in, especially with everything else she had to remember, but Willy had a way of talking that seemed to make everything easy to remember. She didn't think she'd have a very hard time remembering his instructions at all, especially once he showed her how to cast. The first few times he helped her with his hands on hers, but eventually, she got the hang of it without him leaning over her shoulder. She even managed to catch a few fish! By the time the rain began to die off, she figured it was around noon, and Willy gave her a little plastic baggie to carry her catch, a halibut and a few sardines.

"Why doncha go pay a little visit to Elliot on your way back into town? I always worry about him when it storms, and he could probably use the company. That lad's a strange one, but he's a nice enough sort."

Vicky smirked slightly. She was coming to realize there were a lot of available people her age in this town, and a lot of the older folk seemed to be trying to push some of them together... probably figured if they settled down they'd stick around in the town. "Alright, Willy. I'll go make sure he's okay. Thank you for the pole and the instructions!"

"Anytime, lass. Stop by if you need some bait, or if you want to sell your catch, aye?" He gave a final wave, then stepped inside his shop and turned the sign back to 'open'.

Vicky shook her head, but she figured going to see Elliot wouldn't be _that_ bad a way to spend the afternoon, and he did seem like a pretty nice guy.

She ventured back to her bike, first, and then walked it over toward Elliot's shack to let it lean against the wall. She then made her way to the door and gave it a few gentle knocks.

She was greeted at the door by her writer acquaintance, who smiled but seemed a little confused to see her. "Well hello, Miss Vicky. What a surprise to see you out here on a day like this. What brings you to my humble abode?"

Vicky held up her bag of fish. "I just went to see Willy. He gave me his old pole and some fishing lessons, and then suggested I should come check on you and see how you were doing. Said he always worried about you when a storm rolled through."

Elliot began to smile slightly as she spoke, but toward the end, he was practically beaming. "What a kind old fellow, that Willy. I will have to thank him." He glanced toward her fish, and gently cradled his chin in his hand for a moment. "You know, I was just about to cook a late lunch. Would you like to share one of your fish? I just found this lovely new recipe online that I thought I could try, and, well, you show up at my door not a few minutes later with a fish!"

Vicky pursed her lips and shrugged, then held out her bag of fish. "Sure! I was just going to cook them anyway."

"Marvelous!" Elliot stepped to the side and gestured for Vicky to enter, and she stepped in out of the rain.

She took a moment to shake herself out near the door and try to get most of the water off near where it wouldn't matter as much, though she'd still be feeling pretty soggy for a while. Scellia took the opportunity to leap off and shake herself dry before skittering away underneath a table, leaving Vicky and Elliot pretty much alone. He headed into his little kitchen area, giving Vicky a chance to have a look around his home.

It was a pretty cozy little place, a writing desk off in the corner, a large piano that she'd head the other day, and then his bed. There weren't really 'rooms', per say, and the whole thing was really just one big 'room' with things seemingly sectioned off. He noticed her looking as he set up a cutting board and other implements on a small counter space he had near a stove, and smiled slightly. "Yes, I know it's all rather cozy and homey, but it's simple. Doesn't distract me from my writing." Vicky glanced toward his desk, and sure enough, there seemed to be newer material on it.

"How's the writing going? Didn't seem too hot last time." She turned back toward him and finally hung up her jacket now that it had stopped dripping. Hopefully, it would dry out at least a little before she had to leave.

Elliot chuckled quietly as he began to prepare the fish- judging by the way he handled it he seemed like he'd done this quite a few times... probably came with living this close to the sea. He even had a fishing rod of his own hung up on the wall by his door. "Well I wouldn't call it 'hot'", he glanced over toward Vicky before he continued, "But it's going. Better than stalled, at least.", he admitted with a smile.

"Progress is progress. Kept me going on the first few days on the farm."

"How is that, by the way? Is it 'hot'?" He smirked as he glanced up toward her, but turned back to his fish-cleaning duties soon enough.

"It's going pretty well actually. I built a scarecrow this morning. I was going to plant but it was raining, so I thought I'd wait a day or maybe do it when I go back to the farm this afternoon. We've still got a couple months in Spring so I'm not too too worried about it." She took a seat at his little table, only one out of two, and she picked the one that seemed like it'd be used less often. It had fewer scrapes in the wood by its feet, anyway.

"You sound like a lifetime farmer already, Vicky!" He admitted with a quiet laugh. "I will admit I came out here for what I imagine are similar reasons to you. The simpler, quieter life. And I could focus more on my writing, though it hasn't particularly panned out yet." He set a pan on the stove and lit a burner, setting fish down in a moment later to start to cook.

He pulled some vegetables out of a little icebox under the counter and began to prepare those as well, and Vicky remained quiet for a moment to watch him work. "You could be a chef, you know. You've got some serious skills in the kitchen over there."

Elliot laughed again and shook his head, his long hair falling around his shoulders before he swept it up and behind him again. "Oh just what you pick up when you live alone and don't have anyone to cook for you. If you don't learn to cook when you're on your own then you spend a lot more money on food, I find."

Vicky winced slightly. She still hadn't really learned that particular lesson, though once she'd moved out here she found she was cooking a lot more often. "Yeah I suppose you're right. I know I've cooked more in the last few weeks."

"I imagine it must be hard. There isn't really much in the way of food delivery if you don't count Gus, and if you don't want to shop at JojaMart most of the easier food items are limited." He glanced up toward her as he spoke, then went back to his cooking. It looked like he was cooking the vegetables with the fish, some kind of warm salad maybe?

"Yeah. I haven't gone to Joja at all, though I might need to soon, there're a few things I need that Pierre doesn't sell."

"The poor man. He tries so hard, but he's just out-priced. I try to shop there as much as I can, but I just can't really spare the extra money..." Elliot let out a little sigh as he spooned food out of the pan onto two plates and then cut the fire. He gestured for Vicky to come grab a plate, which she did gladly as she was just now realizing she was actually pretty hungry. "It's hard to make a living without any books to your name when you can really only do odd jobs around town.", he continued as he made his way to the table.

"Well, progress is progress, isn't it?" Vicky sat back down and got a good look at her food, a decent looking sort of mixed fish and vegetable warm salad. She dug in after a moment's wait to be polite.

Elliot poured himself a glass from what looked like a wine bottle that'd been resting the table, with a little nod in Vicky's direction. "I'd offer you a glass, but I believe that I heard you don't drink?"

Vicky glanced up from her plate with a grin. "Word travels fast around here, doesn't it?"

"Yes, I believe that Gus mentioned it at some point in the night. Lamenting the lost possible sales or something." He shrugged with a smirk. "I don't believe he really means any harm, it's just his way of gossip."

"I don't really mind, it just means there's less awkward refusal of gifts if you don't have to keep giving back wine or declining beer or something." Vicky shrugged, shoving another bite of food in her mouth. Scellia popped her head over the table after jumping into Vicky's lap, her head darting out to snag a piece of fish every moment or two, though Elliot didn't seem to notice. He likely couldn't see her at all.

Elliot's cooking really was great, and Vicky was sad when she snagged the last bit of fish out from under Scellia's nose. The little dragon had probably eaten half of it... apparently she really liked fish. She sat back in her chair with a little sigh, resting her hands in her lap, pleasantly warm and well fed. "I guess I should be heading back soon... The rain stopped and I suppose I can get more seeds in the ground before nightfall."

Elliot nodded, gesturing with his glass. "Don't worry about the plate, I can take care of it." He stood as she got up to leave, offering her a little bow. "It was lovely to see you again, the company was pleasant. I don't suppose I will see you again for another few days?"

Vicky gave a little shrug with a smile. "You might, you might not. Who knows? I appreciate the food, it was really good."

He nodded and raised his glass as she made her way to the door, Scellia taking up position around her shoulders again, though she was quite rumbly. Probably pleased with her meal of fish. "A pleasure, my friend. Don't be a stranger!"

Vicky nodded and gave a wave, then ducked out of the door to head back home.


	11. Morris and the Prairie King

Time passed quickly in Stardew Valley, and for Victoria, it was no exception. It seemed like she'd only arrived a few days ago, with the valley turning her life upside down several times within those first few important days, and now she'd been here almost a month... a third of the way through spring. Most of the inhabitants of the town were familiar faces now, and she got to see Abigail every few days, which suited her just fine. She'd made a habit of turning up on Fridays to the Saloon, mingling, having a few drinks, and talking. Gus even stopped asking if she was going to try alcohol yet, and had a soda ready for her when she arrived.

She'd also started getting an underlying feeling of... something being off with the town. She wasn't sure what was causing it but there seemed to be a tension in the town that she noticed more the more familiar she got with everyone within it. There was an undercurrent of unease and uncertainty in the town, and she was starting to feel like it was going to come to a head soon.

With Scellia's help, Vicky pulled up her crops for the day, a wonderful batch of Cauliflower, a very healthy crop of Parsnips, beans, and even some potatoes that looked big and full. They rivaled some of the ones she'd seen in the city, and she was quite proud of her haul... she was even considering buying a larger cart, maybe from Clint, or Pierre if he had something on sale. She loaded everything up, the tiny dragon taking up her position atop the pile to keep things from bouncing their way out of the wheelbarrow, and she headed off to town.

The day was sunny and calm, pink petals drifting their way down from the skies above, blown aloft from trees near the ocean by the breeze off of the sea to settle down all over the town, giving the day an especially cheery feeling. It was helping to distract her from the heavy thoughts that had been weighing her down this morning, and the feeling like she was doing _something_ wrong even though she couldn't really place what. She felt successful, the farm was thriving, she'd managed to clear back the worst of the forest over the last month, and she was starting to prepare the ground for the summer... she was planning on really kicking things into gear. Might even hire some of the people in town to help her out around the place...

She pulled up alongside Pierre's store right around opening time, greeting him with a smile and a friendly wave. He seemed cheery enough if a little drawn... maybe he hadn't slept well. They went through the normal motions of bringing her crops indoors, and Lewis even stopped by "Just collecting Pierre's business tax!" and lent a hand bringing everything inside in crates. She knew she could just leave things in her drop-off box on her farm, but it felt more... real if she brought things into town on her own.

"Hey, Pierre? Do you sell any bigger carts? This wheelbarrow just isn't really cutting it anymore and I could use something bigger.", she asked as they made their way inside, and began to get everything ready near the counter so it could be accounted for, weighed, and priced.

The man put a hand on his chin as he thought for a moment, his free hand resting on his hip while he considered. "I think I have an old cart I could sell you. It might be a little big for your bike, but I think you could manage it. It's much bigger than your wheelbarrow but it's not as big as, say, a truck or something. And I could give you some crates to use with it so you don't have to bring everything loose like this." He held up a cauliflower, which had gotten a little bit smashed during delivery. "Keep things like this from happening."

Vicky nodded with an embarrassed little smile. "That's a good idea. I guess I'm starting to grow too much for this thing anyway."

Time wore on as they worked over Vicky's produce, and soon enough the store was bustling with customers, Gus shopping for the Saloon, Marnie picking up a few things for her home, Jodi getting some cereal for her kids, even Demetrius looking over some of the baking supplies with a critical eye. Scellia had taken up position on the counter, out of the way, curled up around a knapsack that was on sale ('Great for adventurers!' read the sign).

The little dragon perked up as the bell for Pierre's store rang for the second time in ten minutes, but Vicky was taken by surprise when she leaped up and hissed loudly, arching her back and baring fangs as she faced the door.

"What the-", Vicky started, but she stopped just as soon as she heard a soft 'oh no' from Pierre. She turned quickly to see who the new visitor was that had gotten such a reaction out of the little dragon and Pierre at the same time, only to see a person she'd never met before.

A new man stepped into the shop, looking around with what could only be called a pompous air, thumbs hooked into his belt, a dark blue jacket, and a red bowtie. It was Vicky's turn to let out an 'oh no' because she recognized that outfit- A JojaMart store manager.

She heard Pierre growl a soft 'Morris' from behind her, and he stepped out from behind the counter, Vicky's produce forgotten for the moment. "Excuse you, I told you that you weren't welcome in my shop anymore!"

Morris just laughed softly under his breath and fished out a fist full of blue tickets that Vicky instantly recognized. Coupons. "I might not be, but I'm sure these **discounts** are!"

He chuckled again, lifting his hand into the air. "Come and get it folks, coupons for 50% off your purchase at JojaMart!"

Pierre gasped. "What!? 50%!"

Vicky heard a few more gasps of '50%!', but they sounded less alarmed, and more amazed... and sure enough, just about everyone started walking toward Morris.

"Any takers? Any- oh, yes, here you go." Smug as could be, Morris began handing out a coupon to anyone who would take one... which happened to be everyone except Vicky and Pierre himself, who looked absolutely distraught. Morris wasn't stingy with the coupons, either, some people left with a handful of their own... Jodi even shot an apologetic look toward Pierre. "I'm sorry, but I have to think of my kids! With this, I can buy them even more food... You know with Kent gone times have been hard."

Within a few short minutes, Pierre's store was rendered a ghost town, with only Victoria, Pierre, and Morris left to inhabit the shop.

Pierre let out a distraught sigh, and Vicky wanted to hug him as the man just seemed to deflate. "But... I can't match those prices. I'd be selling at a loss!" While Pierre deflated, however, Vicky seethed. She'd left the city to get away from exactly this sort of behavior, and it had followed her even to here.

Morris made his way over to the counter where Vicky stood, glaring daggers at the smug man, who even had the audacity to offer her a coupon, though she didn't move to take it. "It must be so difficult for you, losing loyal customers like that." He even let out a derisive little laugh. "But can you blame them?" His face contorted into a giggle. "Joja Corporation is clearly the superior choice! Soon the whole town will realize that."

He finally turned his attention to Vicky, and even his self-sure composure faltered for a moment once he got a good look at the glare she was giving him. "What about you, little miss? Don't you want these savings?"

Vicky growled quietly under her breath but swiped the offered coupon out of his hand.

She heard an offended "Vicky!" from behind her from Pierre, but she wasn't done yet.

Just as Morris turned to gloat some more at Pierre, Vicky shredded the coupon with a few quick movements of her hands, drawing a confused look from the JojaMart manager.

"YOU POMPOUS FUCK!", shouted the farmer, and she tossed the shredded coupon directly into his face, decorating his stupid haircut and bow tie with tiny pieces of paper, even lodging some behind his glasses.

"Now see here!", spluttered Morris as he tried to block the paper with a hand, and failed, and began to try to pick them out of his glasses.

"You see your ass out of my friend's shop!", cried Vicky, and she practically manhandled the alarmed JojaMart manager away from the counter, giving him a shove that nearly sent him to his knees. "You're not welcome! You're lucky Pierre doesn't call Lewis for your trespassing!" She gestured with an extended arm to the door, pointing Morris exactly where he was wanted- out.

The man sputtered indignantly but wasted little time in beating a retreat out the door, the cheery little jingle announcing his departure just as it had announced his unwanted arrival. Now only Vicky and Pierre were left in the store, aside from Scellia, and the brown-haired man seemed too taken aback by Vicky's outburst to know what to say for the moment... but an appreciative smile did tug at the corner of his lips. He finally recovered a moment later, while Vicky still stared at the door Morris had just beaten a retreat through.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who despises him as much as I do."

Vicky suddenly realized she was still clenching her fists and staring at the door, and she had to force herself to relax, releasing the tension in her balled fists as she turned back to Pierre, who was giving her an appraising look as if he was seeing her again for the first time. "Sorry! I just... I left the city to get away from people like him. I can't believe he'd come into your shop and do something like that!"

Pierre just looked down at the ground, not able to meet Vicky's eyes, putting his hands into the pockets of his blazer. "Yeah. It takes some nerve. But that's not the first time he's done something like that. I can't do anything to stop him, either. If he didn't do it here, he'd do it in the square as they entered or left, or he'd just do it in the JojaMart itself. I just can't match him."

Vicky reached out, gently placing a hand on the man's shoulder. "Don't worry, Pierre. You know I'll never shop there."

He gave her a smile and gently patted the hand on top of his shoulder. "I know, Vicky. I appreciate it."

She pulled her hand away just in time for the door to the back of Pierre's shop to pull open, and Abigail's head to poke out from behind it. "Is everything okay? I heard yelling."

Vicky's cheeks flushed red, and Pierre put a hand on the back of his head with a smile. "It's fine! We just had a little... dustup in the shop, but we took care of it. Morris showed up again."

Abigail's brows drew down into a heavy frown. "Oh, that asshole."

Pierre nodded, then turned partway to look at Vicky. "Hey, why don't you go talk to Abigail for a minute while I weigh everything up? It'll be a little bit, you brought a lot in today."

Vicky nodded and turned toward Abigail. "Sure! Wanna hang out for a minute?"

"Yeah, alright. Come on." Abigail waved a hand to gesture Vicky forward, then disappeared behind the door again. Vicky followed her, down the hallway she'd never been down any of the times she'd been here, to Abigail's room.

It looked a lot like she'd imagined it to, though there was a surprising nautical theme to the wallpaper. Abigail seemed to notice because she chuckled nervously and offered "I wanted to be a sailing explorer when I was little" by way of explanation.

"Makes sense", replied Vicky, while still taking in the sights of the room. There was even a Guinea Pig in a cage in the corner, with a little engraved 'David Jr' on a metal plaque along the top of the cage. She stopped for a moment and glanced toward Abigail. "David... Jr? David I could understand, but..."

"Oh! Hah. Long story, actually." Abigail waved a hand dismissively, and Vicky just rolled her eyes good-naturedly and continued further into the room. She even spotted an Ouija board in the corner, which is something she would have entirely expected Abigail to have. Her friend led her over toward the TV in the corner, where a game system was plugged in, and sure enough, a Prairie King cartridge was plugged into the top. "Do you want to play?", Abigail offered after she noticed Vicky glancing at it. "I can't get past the first level. This game's really, really hard."

Vicky smirked and shrugged, then made her way around opposite the cushion sitting in front of the TV- where Abigail sat down- and picked up the second controller. "Sure. I've never played it before but I've got time to learn I guess."

"Okay, great! With your help I'm sure I can beat it, I've been getting really close to doing it on my own." Abigail leaned forward and flipped the power switch, and soon enough the familiar sound of the Prairie King theme song, the same one as the Saloon, rang out into her room.

There was little warning once the game started, and Vicky had to learn on her feet how to play it. One stick controlled her character, the other controlled where he shot, and as Abigail explained a moment after they started, the little 'X' on the controller used an item if you picked it up.

It took a couple starts for them to really get going; apparently, the game spawned more enemies if there were two players, and Vicky needed to get the hang of it first. But soon enough the two of them were laughing and enjoying the game, leaning this way and that as they tried to guide their guys to victory, yelling "nononono!" and "yesyesyesyes!" alternately in times of defeat or triumph, even taunting each other if one or the other died.

They were nearing the end, the timer at the top of the screen denoting how much time they had left on the level slowly ticking down when Abigail died again and let out a frustrated 'dammit!'. "That was my last life!" She turned to watch Vicky, the tip of her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth, leaning forward on her knees as she played, hands working frantically over the controller as she tried to guide her Prairie King to victory. Just a few more seconds...

Vicky's hands shot up into the air with a "YES!" as the victory jingle rang, and a 'you win!' screen popped up over the level. She shot to her feet and did a little victory dance, spinning herself around chanting "I did it, I did it, I did it~"... that is until she turned around to see Abigail staring with a bemused expression on her face, and she felt her own flare up like the sun as she turned red again. "Oh. Uh. I guess I looked a little dumb. Just then."

Abigail stared for a moment longer before bursting out into a laugh, holding her hand to her stomach. "Yeah you did look pretty silly!"

Even Vicky's ears burned as she sank back down onto her knees and stared at the screen, having made an idiot of herself. That didn't last too long, though because Abigail gently patted a hand on her shoulder a few times. "It was also funny, and kind of cute. So don't feel too bad, okay?"

Vicky couldn't help but grin at that as she turned to her friend. "Really?"

Abigail nodded, and the two of them just sort of... locked eyes for what felt like a full minute, just smiling and enjoying their triumph, until a call of "Vicky!" came from near the door, and the moment was broken.

While she inwardly sighed, she leaned around her friend and looked to the door. "Yeah?"

"I'm all done out here. You can leave whenever you want, I've got your money waiting for you."

"Okay, great!" She turned back to Abigail, but she was already shutting down the little game system, the moment gone.

"So what happened out there? Dad just said Morris showed up?" Surprisingly, she even had a little color to her cheeks too.

That brought a surprising little twirl to Vicky's heart, but she made a mental effort to mash it right back down into where it'd come from. _She likes dudes, you idiot!_ "Yeah. He came in, started handing out coupons to everyone."

"What? Seriously! What an asshole!" Abigail stared incredulously, and Vicky got a good close look at just how... pretty her eyes were.

She mentally shook herself, however, and continued. "Yeah! I know. He even gave me one and I shredded it and tossed it back in his face, told him he was a pompous fuck and to get out of your dad's shop."

Abigail's eyes went even wider, and she breathed a soft little 'really?' as she stared.

Vicky felt her cheeks burning again, and she looked away, putting a hand on the back of her neck. "Yeah. I guess I overreacted, I just left the city to get away from-agh!" She let out a cry of alarm as Abigail wrapped her up in a hug, and then a wheeze as her... surprisingly strong arms began to slowly crush the life out of her. "A-abby, c-can't breathe!"

Abigail pulled back with a 'sorry!' and looked away, her face definitely flushed. "Sorry! I just... you standing up for my dad like that is really cool, you know?"

Vicky smiled, and it seemed to be contagious because her friend started to smile again too. "Really? I was worried you'd think it was decidedly un-cool."

"No, no. My dad can be kind of an idiot sometimes, but... he's my dad. And I really care about him. You standing up for him like that is... really, really awesome."

Vicky grinned, but her cheeks were definitely red. "Well, I'm glad I did it then. I mean... even more glad than finally actually telling Joja to fuck off. ... After a fashion, anyway."

"Yeah." Abigail smirked, and they locked eyes again, that is until the purple haired woman turned away and stood up.

 _Damn._

"Anyway, I guess you should get going?" Abigail didn't turn around, just looking over her shoulder, hands held together in front of herself.

"Yeah, I guess I should." Vicky slowly pushed herself to her feet and dusted off the back of her jeans. "I'll see you soon, yeah?"

"Yeah, definitely." Abigail still didn't turn around.

A little confused, Vicky frowned slightly and headed out of the room, offering a little wave that wasn't returned as she left.

She found Pierre standing behind the counter again, Scellia sitting atop the knapsack and giving Vicky an odd look. Pierre just beamed. "I even threw in a little extra. For what you did today. I really appreciate you standing up for me, Vicky."

Vicky glanced down toward the purse, pulling her lips a little more tightly together. "Actually... Keep it, Pierre. You'll need the help after Morris stole all your customers."

The man spluttered, clapping a hand to his forehead. "Keep it! But Vicky... this is like five thousand G! That's a ton of money."

She looked toward the purse, nodded, and then looked back up to Pierre. "I know. Keep yourself going, Pierre. We can't let Joja win."

Without waiting for him to answer and gesturing for the little dragon to join her, Vicky headed out the door.

Scellia hopped up onto her shoulder as she got on her bike to leave, craning her head around to peer at Vicky curiously, one little eyeridge raised.

Vicky pursed her lips a little, staring back at the little dragon. "What?"

Scellia tilted her head to the side, then gave a little shrug of her wings and pulled herself back into a tighter ball, head disappearing from in front of Vicky's view.

"Hold on, Scellia. We're not going home just yet."

Vicky had just thought of somewhere else she needed to visit, first.


	12. Gathering Spring

Vicky began to pedal her bike, wheelbarrow and all, off toward the community center. She knew now what she'd been feeling when she woke up, that sense of foreboding, tension... It had come to a head when Morris had walked into Pierre's shop. It was all coming from Joja, from the town. Pierre had said it himself, he couldn't match their prices, he couldn't keep up with them, and Morris was actively attempting to steal his customers away... and she knew exactly why.

She'd seen it more than once when she worked at Joja, almost never directly, but she'd always seen the impact, the way her delivery routes changed. They moved in, set up a shop, and then slowly ground away all the competition once they were all that was left. Then once they had a solid foothold in the town, they'd move in and take everything over, one by one. Gus would lose his saloon, Harvey would lose his clinic, Pierre would lose his store. Until all that remained in the town was Joja and their various subsidiaries. It would happen to Pelican Town too... unless someone did something.

She was just one person, she didn't know what she could do, but she did know someone... or well, more accurately 'some things' that could help. She'd go to the Community Center and see if she couldn't get something out of the Junimos. She knew that they wanted her help, but she didn't really know what with... not yet. Maybe they could do something. The magic of this valley could turn things around... somehow. She didn't really know what else she could do, how else she could help. But she wasn't about to allow Joja to ruin the one place where she was really starting to feel like she fit in. She was happy here.

Victoria pulled up her bike to the side of the Community Center, glad that the rain had stopped. A glance up to the sky showed stars peeking through the clouds above, the rain had chased away the sun, and between her visit with Elliot and playing games with Abigail and everything else, most of the day had already disappeared. She supposed she should make it quick if she was going to get up early and plant like she'd wanted to do today. Hopefully, they'd have something for her, something she could work on.

When she pushed the door open and walked in, all she could think about was how... empty the place was. It just felt wrong. She began to walk around, hoping to see one of the squeaky little fuzzballs she was looking for, but none really showed themselves... Eventually, she found her way back into the room where she'd first seen the plaque on the ground, just because she didn't have any other ideas... only to realize that the plaque had changed. Just like the ones in the other rooms, this one now had a list of items desired on it. There was even one geared toward spring! Vicky pursed her lips and leaned in closer, reading the items they were looking for.

"Return to us items of spring and mineral wealth to you we will bring." Vicky pursed her lips slightly as she looked over the items they wanted. Horseradish, Daffodils, Leeks, Dandelions... weren't some of those weeds? She supposed she'd said that last bit out loud because Scellia gave a grumpy little huff and a puff of air against her ear from inside of her hood. "Okay, okay. There's more here..."

"Bring to us items of summer and the bridge will be less of a bummer. Bring to us items of fall and you will mine most of all. Bring to us items of winter and your pick will be a winner. Bring to us items of construction and your complications will see a reduction." Vicky let out a yelp as the plaque below her suddenly began to glow, she scrambled back away from it before golden light filled her vision and she felt herself falling backward... only to land, dreamlike, on her feet once again.

She blinked several times as she looked around herself, standing somewhere that seemed familiar... Then she realized that she was looking at the bridge on the east side of town that led to the old quarry. Right now it was destroyed, an earthquake or Joja or something had taken it out and it lay in ruins, but here in her, admittedly hazy, dream, she could see it standing strong and proud like it once had.

 _Bring us what we need and you will succeed._

Vicky blinked again and found herself back in the Community Center, laying on her back. She let out a quiet little 'woah' and looked up to find Scellia sitting on her chest, looking at her expectantly. "That was strange... I guess I should start bringing them what they want, huh?"

Scellia gave a single little nod, then slowly snaked her way back up into Vicky's hood again. The farmer pushed herself up onto her feet, somewhat wishing that the Junimo could tell her this stuff without knocking her around all the time(Which brought another puff from Scellia, apparently the dragon could read her mind), but she supposed there were worse ways to go about it. She went and checked the other plaques that she could see, but aside from items they wanted, some of which she still had on the farm, mostly crops she'd planted earlier in spring, she couldn't really see much of the rhymes... or maybe that first plaque was special, she wasn't sure. Still, she now had a goal, even if she wished she could have maybe run into a Junimo instead of getting a light show and a weird... dream thing.

She made her way back outside and climbed back onto her bike, starting on her way back home. She'd need to come back up here with some paper or something to make a list, write down everything the Junimo wanted, keep it somewhere in her house... it'd help with planning. The way back home was quiet, only her thoughts to keep her company... The days just really kept coming. She'd sort of settled in, gotten relaxed, maybe even forgotten about some of the magic stuff that'd happened since she arrived. Then Morris... She still clenched her hands around the handlebars of her bike when she thought about it.

The ride home gave her time to blow off a little steam, riding as fast as she could, and by the time she finally made it back she was in a much better mood. It was getting a little late, but with Scellia on her back and her bike pulled up onto her porch, she stepped through the door and into her kitchen to make her some dinner before she finally headed off to bed. She'd go see if she couldn't gather some of the things the Junimo wanted tomorrow... maybe she'd get lucky. She was curious to see just what would happen if she actually completed one of the little... well, she didn't know what to call them. Bundles, she supposed.

The next morning the sun rose bright and early, the skies clear after the storm and rain of the previous day, a fresh, rain-quenched smell to the earth. It hadn't rained hard enough to really leave massive puddles even the day before, so the ground, while wet, was definitely workable. Victoria spent most of the morning planting her new Strawberries, wanting to get them in the ground as soon as possible. Nothing else seemed to be ready to be pulled up, and she spent a little extra time clearing a bit more of the brush of the forest, always expanding the perimeter and workable ground that she had access to. Scellia was nowhere to be seen, even for breakfast, though Vicky assumed she had some kind of forest guardian business to attend to somewhere, so she wasn't particularly worried.

With her work done for the day, Vicky put her sun hat on top of her head and secured the strap so she wouldn't lose it if she decided to ride quickly, then took off toward the south on her bike... She figured the big open field to the south of her farm would be the best place to start looking. She looked up pictures of what she would be looking for on her phone so she at least had an idea of what to keep an eye out for... she imagined the leeks would be the most difficult since they seemed pretty small. Still, the land around here was rich and what she was looking for was probably easy to find... and for some reason, she had a feeling that she'd not have much trouble finding what she was looking for.

She met Leah, Willy, and Haley while she was riding around looking for what she needed, Haley seemed too engrossed in her camera to bother other than a quick hello, Willy was fishing so she didn't want to bother him too much and scare away the fish, but she did stop to say hello to Leah. Vicky pulled her bike over to find Leah standing near the river, sketching away on a little pad. Not wanting to simply stop right next to her and practically invite herself into the woman's personal space, she stepped off of her bike a few feet away and waved. "Hey, Leah. What're you up to?"

Leah glanced up with a bit of a surprised expression as if she wasn't expecting to be interrupted, but she smiled when she saw Vicky. They'd spoken a few times over the weeks when Vicky showed up for the Friday night festivities at the Saloon, and a few times out and about town besides. "Hello, Vicky! I'm... drawing, actually. Would you like to see?"

"Definitely!" Vicky stepped closer and tilted her head to look at the drawing pad that Leah presented. It was a sketch of the river and the lake of sorts in the middle of the large field, the islands and so on... and it was actually quite good. "Wow, Leah. This is great! You're really talented, you know that?"

The woman giggled quietly and shrugged, looking a bit bashful after Vicky's complement. "I guess I'm okay. I was going to turn it into a painting once I finished the sketch. Hang it up in my house to enjoy on rainy or winter days." She turned to Vicky and smiled once again. "What are you up to?"

Vicky paused for a moment, hesitating for a second... she figured 'looking for specific plants for some magical fuzzballs' probably wouldn't fly as an explanation, so she winged it. "I'm looking for some ingredients for a salad I want to make"- she was pretty sure you could use at least most of the stuff she needed in a salad- "And some flowers to decorate my house with."

Leah put her hand on her hip, turning more toward Vicky. "Really? What are you looking for? Specifically, anyway. I might know! I forage for stuff around here all the time, the land really provides for you if you know where to look."

Vicky smiled nice and bright at that. She knew she'd find what she needed somehow. "Well, I need some Leeks, some wild Horseradish, some Dandelions, and some Daffodils." She gave a little nod once she finished her list, hoping that Leah'd be able to help.

"Oh! Well, Leeks are almost always in the south of the lake." She pointed with the pencil she'd been using to draw with, out across the lake. "Horseradish might be in the west, though I always have luck with them near the bus stop. You might find some Daffodils in town, and Dandelions too. You might have luck with them up near the lake too, or maybe around the mountain. Where Robin and Demetrius' house is." She pointed around herself with her pencil, giving Vicky vague directions.

"Oh! How incredibly helpful of you, Leah. I had no idea you knew where to find all this stuff." Vicky began to get back up onto her bike, just to sit on the seat.

Leah laughed nervously and rubbed a hand against the back of her neck. "Oh, well, when you're an artist like me you don't often have a lot to live on... I make do with what I can find around here."

Vicky nodded then sat onto her bike's seat, getting ready to push off. "Well, I'll let you get back to your art then! I need to find that stuff if I want to have a salad ready for lunchtime."

"Of course!" Leah paused for a moment, then held out a hand. "Oh, and Vicky? Don't eat the Daffodils. They'll make you sick."

"Oh. I didn't actually know that before. Thanks for the heads up!" Vicky pushed off with one foot and began to head off toward the south of the lake, Leah nodding and waving after her as she went.

True to Leah's word, the south of the lake was practically lousy with Leeks, and she actually needed to stop off back home and unload some of them to make room in her basket. Some of them went in her fridge for food, she was actually planning on making a salad out of everything if she had enough after giving the Junimo what they wanted, but she kept a bit in her basket... she wasn't actually sure how much of this stuff they'd want. She didn't find any horseradish at the bus stop, but when she was heading into down she did actually find some, and she even found a Daffodil along the way... A few of them in fact. She collected a set to make a little flower box under her window, there were some bits of wood she thought she could turn into a box if she put a tarp or something in it to hold the soil...

A ride through town had her meeting Penny, Harvey, Maru, Jodi, and Evelyn, though other than a quick wave and a hi, she didn't stick around... she had places to be! She finally found Dandelions north of town, which was convenient since it was close to the Community Center, where she was going to end up at the end of this little trip anyway. She got a bunch of those too, both for eating and to add to her flower box, along with what she hoped was a good enough sample for the Junimo.

Her basket now almost completely full of various plants, she pedaled her way over to the Community Center and stopped just outside... interestingly, the door was open. She wondered who might be in a place like this. She picked her basket up off of her bike and headed on inside, carrying her little offerings at her side.

It wasn't hard to figure out who the 'intruder' was, as she found Lewis standing just inside, looking around the building with his hands in his pockets. He turned when she entered, and though he smiled when he saw Vicky, she could tell he was trying to figure out why she was carrying a basket of plants. "How goes your day, Vicky? Gathering up ingredients for a salad or something?"

Vicky smirked a bit then gave a nod, adjusting the basket on her hip. "Yeah! Just thought I'd stop by here and have a little look around. Make sure the old place was holding up, you know?"

Lewis shook his head and smiled... she didn't think he believed her, but maybe he didn't want to ask too many questions. He walked toward her and then past her, though he did stop and put a hand on her shoulder as he passed. "I'm really glad you're fitting in here, Vicky. Every week I hear something new about you. Some joke you told, some story about something you did... Pierre wouldn't stop talking about what you did for him yesterday."

Vicky blushed and brushed some of her hair out of her eyes, stammering out the beginnings of an apology. She hadn't wanted to yell and borderline assault one of the inhabitants of his town, but he stopped her by gently patting Vicky on the shoulder, and he held her gaze for a long moment. "It's okay, Vicky. I think you just did something that a lot of us have been wanting to do for a long time. Even if some of us can't..." He sighed and looked away, and Vicky could tell he was thinking about something. "Afford it. Literally or figuratively."

His hand squeezed her shoulder again, though it was warm and comforting, and then he pulled his hand away, heading off toward the door. "Whatever you're doing here, I'm sure it's worth it. Good luck, Vicky."

She turned to watch him curiously as he left... sometimes she wondered just how much Lewis knew about what was going on. She shrugged afterward, however, and headed deeper into the Community Center, toward the room where she'd found out the items they'd wanted to be gathered. When she arrived it looked much like she'd left it, the odd little plaque on the ground, the dust disturbed the same way. She half expected to see footprints that weren't hers, but it seemed like Lewis hadn't gone further than the main room.

Unsure of what to do, she knelt next to the plaque and began to place some of the items down onto it, Leeks first since she had the most of those- just in case she messed it up somehow. However, as soon as they were laid flat on the surface, she found that she couldn't pick them back up again. They just wouldn't move. Curious and a bit intrigued, she placed the other items down. Dandelions, Daffodils, and finally the horseradish.

When all four items touched the plaque, it glowed a bright, almost blinding gold, and when Vicky could finally see again they'd vanished- instead replaced by a small paper bag with fanciful tree and flower designs doodled on it like someone had drawn on it with crayons. Incredibly curious, she peeled the top open and peeked inside, finding little packets of seeds.

 _Return to us items of spring and mineral wealth to you we will bring._

Vicky jumped at the voice- She could definitely hear it that time, like a whisper on the quiet wind that blew around the old building. She looked around herself, trying to figure out where it'd come from... when a little Junimo, white-colored, appeared, carrying what looked like a gift-wrapped package. "What the f..." Vicky trailed off as it began to bounce off down the hall. She picked up her basket and her bag of seeds and began to follow it at a safe distance, wondering just what the heck it was doing.

It carried the little bundle all the way to the odd little hut in the main room, then vanished inside without a trace. Vicky even leaned down and stuck her head inside, but couldn't find anything of note. Slightly unnerved she pulled her head back out- only to find Scellia staring at her, inches away from her face. She yelped and fell back, the little dragon just tilting her head curiously as she stared at Vicky.

The farmer frowned and clutched her chest, picking up the bag of seeds she'd almost flung across the room in her fright. "One of these days you're going to give me a heart attack, you know that?"

The little dragon just smiled, looking smug... and more than a little pleased.


	13. Flower Festival

The days just kept rolling by, and before she knew it Victoria got a letter in the mail from Lewis.

 _Dear Victoria,_  
 _Tomorrow we're all getting together for the Flower Dance._

 _If you can find a partner, you might even want to participate in the dance yourself!_  
 _There's a little clearing beyond the forest west of town where we hold the dance. Arrive between 9 AM and 2PM if you're interested._

 _\- Mayor Lewis_

She reread his letter a couple of times, smiling slightly at his words. Something like this would be a good chance for her to mingle with the other villagers and take some time off from all her work, all her brooding over Joja and the town... It would be nice to just forget things and enjoy the dance for a little while. She leaned gently against her mailbox, farming tool in hand, and glanced over the land she now called home... It had been a rough time, since she arrived, but she really thought she was starting to get the hang of things.

She could actually see the far fence through some of the trees and brush at this point, though in places she really wished she couldn't... the years hadn't been kind to the wood and much of the fencing needed to be replaced. She'd finally gotten internet run out to her home and she'd been able to set up her laptop on the kitchen table as a makeshift desk, it also let her email her parents and tell them how she was doing, as well as check on the goings-on with the rest of the world.

Much as she expected news was still centered mostly on the war with the Gotoro Empire, though things seemed to be at a stalemate at the moment... There were some stories about prison camps and battles but she had enough on her mind right now with everything going on in the town, and she didn't want to be worrying about that too, so she mostly put it out of mind. It was to the south, across the sea, and was unlikely to be coming back this way anytime soon.

When Vicky climbed into bed that night, it was with the thought that Spring would be ending relatively soon. She knew the Flower Dance was held in the waning days of Spring and before she knew it Summer would be upon her. It really made her think and reflect back on everything that had happened since she arrived and how she just felt like... this place was home. Nowhere had really felt like 'home' before, but this place? It definitely did.

Victoria awoke bright and early the next morning, glad to see that the weather was sunny with nary a cloud in the sky to shadow the day's events. She set about making sure the farm was taken care of, that everything was watered, weeds were pulled, and about mid-morning she could hear quiet music floating over the trees, telling her that the Dance must've started out in the forest.

She stood and wiped her brow, clearing some of the sweat as she walked back toward the house to put her tools away when something caught her sight out of the corner of her eye. She had to do a double-take, because standing near the entrance of her farm with a smile on her face and wearing a dress, of all things, was Abigail.

Vicky blinked several times as she took in the sight. Her friend's form definitely filled out the dress well and her hair shone in the bright Spring light, obviously having been brushed and cleaned well in preparation for the Dance. She looked beautiful. It took Vicky a long moment to even think to say anything, and when she did she realized she had no idea what to say. She felt a little nudge against the back of her leg and looked down to see Scellia headbutting her calf, as if to say 'go talk to her'.

Vicky lay her tools on the porch and against the house, then made her way down the stairs toward Abigail. "Hey! I... I didn't expect to see you in a dress." She pretty much immediately mentally slapped herself in the face, people could wear a dress whenever they wanted.

"Yeah, I don't normally wear dresses." Abigail picked up the sides of the dress and made a little curtsy toward Vicky, though when she stood that familiar smile was back on her face. "It's tradition for the Flower Dance though. Are you coming? I wasn't sure if Lewis had told you about it or not, most people in town don't even think about it until it's the day of or a few days before if you're Gus, since he handles all the food."

"Yeah, definitely!" She wasn't going to miss a chance to see Abigail dancing, that was for sure. "He sent me a letter yesterday telling me about it, I was just taking care of some things here on the farm..." Vicky smirked a bit and stuck out her arm, offering it to Abigail like a proper 'gentleman' at a ball. "Shall we head out?"

Abigail giggled softly and shook her head, then took Vicky's arm in her own and began to head off toward the south. "I didn't want to head over there without at least checking to make sure you were coming."

Vicky felt that familiar warmth from being close to Abigail, but she did her best to suppress things. It was still too soon after everything with Sebastian and she really didn't want to press her luck... though it was always at the back of her mind that Sam or someone else might try to move in. "I was definitely going to go. Though I appreciate you turning up to make sure." She'd even put on some kind of perfume... it was nice and reminded Victoria of plums.

"Couldn't have my best friend in town missing out on the festival, now could I?" Abigail glanced toward her with a little smile.

"Really? You consider me your best friend?" Vicky was genuinely surprised, she thought it'd be Sam or Alex or maybe Emily.

Abigail remained quiet for a moment before she nodded her head, the two of them passing the southern gate out of Victoria's farm. "Ever since..." She paused. "You know. It made me think. You're the only one who's never questioned anything I do. Sam always asks why I play videogames, he says it's a 'guy thing', even Sebastian thought my wanting to be an adventurer was stupid..." She looked down at the ground as they walked.

Vicky smiled a little bit and gently patted the woman's arm. She could definitely settle for best friend. "I don't think anything you do is stupid, Abigail."

Her friend perked up and that smile returned to her face. "Thanks Vicky, I really mean it." She gave Victoria an appreciative smile, then the two walked on in mostly silence.

As they got closer to the Dance, the music picked up. Near to the gate Abigail took her arm away from Vicky's, and Victoria didn't do much to stop her. It made her a little sad, but she supposed Abigail would have to go get ready for the dance, find her partner and so on... As her friend walked ahead Vicky stuck her hands in her pockets and wandered closer, rounding the bend a few steps behind Abigail.

The sight before her was definitely something to see, Lewis had called it a 'clearing' but it almost looked more like a fairground. There was fencing around the edges and huge arrangements of flowers in half-cut barrels around the sides, people standing and milling about here and there. To the south were tables with food and refreshments, obviously set up by Gus given the way he stood close, and of course Pam hung out near the table.

Pierre even had a little stand set up near the entrance and Victoria walked up just as Abigail was wandering off. "Hey, Vicky!" Pierre called to her from behind his stand, giving her a friendly wave and a smile. "I'm selling a few decorations if you might want something to put on your farm?"

"Oh yeah? What've you got?" Vicky leaned over against the stand, looking over his offerings. He had one of those barrels sitting next to his stand, as well as some small boxes of flowers. There was even a spring-decorated scarecrow leaning against the side.

"Well, you can buy a flower to give to the object of your affections, or you can buy one of the barrels we used to decorate the place with. I can even show you how to make one! Or you could buy this Scarecrow here... Jodi put it together as part of a contest but Lewis decided we should just sell it instead. Might be useful on the farm, right?"

Vicky pursed her lips a little bit, looking at the thing. Purple shirt, green, springtime-colored pants, even wearing a straw hat. "Yeah, you know what? My fields are getting big enough I think I could use a second, why not. I'll pay you for it now and then take it home with me after the dance?"

"Great!" She exchanged some money with Pierre then gave him a little smile, before wandering off deeper into the dancegrounds. Everyone seemed happy and carefree, which suited Vicky just fine. Vicky waved hello to many of the people around town, Clint and Emily, Caroline and Jodi, she even gave a friendly wave to Shane though he blew it off... She still hadn't really gotten him to talk to her let alone be friendly. Vicky even spotted Scellia hiding under one of the tables munching on something.

She eventually made her way over to the west side of the clearing, near George and Evelyn. She was asking him whether he liked them or not, though his reply made Vicky somewhat sad... "Flowers? I can hardly see them!"

Victoria wandered over and stood next to the two of them, giving Evelyn an encouraging smile. "I think they're beautiful. Did you make these?"

"Well, not all of them, but..." Evelyn smiled slightly and brushed a hand over one of the flowers. "I've been working on them for a week. The hardest part is getting all the fresh flowers in the tubs the day before. It's very tiring."

"Well your work definitely paid off. They're lovely."

"Oh, thank you dear." Evelyn smiled brightly.

Vicky gave a slight nod and glanced south, spotting Abigail talking with Sam and Sebastian, but she decided against going down to have a word... They looked like they were talking about something amongst themselves anyway. She eventually spotted Lewis, who waved her over with a smile.

"Hello, Vicky! What do you think about the Flower Dance?" Even Lewis had a little bright pink flower stuck in the pocket of his shirt, just adding to the festivities in his own little way.

"I think it's pretty neat, honestly. What exactly goes on?"

"Well it's a celebration of Spring, the new life brought to the valley, and also of the coming summer, when the land will truly open up with it's bounty. We have all the young ones who aren't children take part in a dance to add to the celebration." He smiled wide and put his thumbs in his suspenders. "It's been a tradition since before I was Mayor. I'm proud to keep it going."

Vicky smiled and stood next to him, turning to face the rest of the villagers and watch people milling about while waiting for the dance. However, she did get the feeling of being watched, and when she turned her head she saw Lewis looking at her. "What?"

"You know, you're around the age we'd ask you to dance... You've become a part of this town over the last several weeks... Why don't you see if someone will be your dance partner?"

Vicky's face flushed and she stammered. "O-oh! N-no, I can't dance, really. I'll just... stand by and watch."

Lewis smiled and reached over, giving her a little nudge on the shoulder. "Oh go on, Vicky. See if someone will dance with you. Traditionally everyone knows their partner, but... You never know! You might be surprised!"

Vicky shook her head, but her gaze turned south and she bit her lip between her teeth. Maybe... She looked back at Lewis and gave a nod. "Alright. I'll go ask someone."

"That's the spirit, my girl! Go on, go ask." Lewis beamed and gestured with a hand for her to head out toward the festival. "After I see you ask someone I'll call everyone to the dance. It's almost time!"

Vicky nodded, then headed off... She already knew who she wanted to ask. It didn't take long for her to make her way over to the trio standing near the south of the field, and she had to admit that Sebastian and Sam looked great in their little suits... she realized that the pants on the scarecrow she'd bought were made out of the same material. It made her wonder if maybe someone had outgrown their old pants. "H-hey, Abigail?"

The three of them had been talking about something, it sounded like band business, when Vicky walked up, but all three of them turned to look when she spoke... She regretted it almost instantly, but she hoped her cheeks weren't too flushed. "Yes, Vicky?"

"I was wondering, uh..." She glanced down and kicked at the dirt under her foot, then glanced back up to Abigail. "Would you maybe want to Dance with me this year?"

It hit her a moment too late that this was basically asking Abigail to date her... it hadn't seemed that way before but what else would it mean? Why would she ask Abigail to dance with her if she wasn't interested, they paired up the girls and boys!

 _Stupidstupidstupidstupid!_

She did watch Abigail's expression carefully though, and it was almost funny. She smiled, her expression running through several different changes in rapid succession. Realization, a smile, though whether it was a smile at Vicky's expense or because of her she wasn't sure, a blush, even a small hint of a frown, and Vicky realized she was holding her breath but she just couldn't let it out yet... And then she saw Abigail's shoulders sag and she knew what the answer would be.

"I'm sorry, Vicky. I already asked Sebastian to dance this year."

Vicky nodded, then let her glance fall to the ground. "It's okay, I understand. It was very last minute." She looked up and gave her friend a smile, then turned on her heel and began to walk back toward Lewis. As she did she spotted Abigail holding out a hand, almost like she had something else to say, but... As Vicky walked away, she didn't try to stop her.

She could hear Lewis begin to call everyone around to start the dance, and she used the opportunity to sneak off to the northwest corner and watch from the shade of a tree overhanging the fence. She hadn't realized until too late what she was actually doing, what Lewis had meant by 'asking someone to dance'. He was trying to get her to admit that she liked someone in town. Now Abigail and Sam and Sebastian knew exactly how she felt. For them the dance was just tradition, just something they did because they had to every year. For Vicky to walk up and ask Abigail to dance with HER... She bit her lip and had to master herself. Today was supposed to be a happy day.

"It's time for the dance, everyone! Partners, please line up!"

Vicky put her hands back in her pockets and sighed quietly as she watched. Abigail and the others, Haley and Leah and Penny and Maru and Emily... all the guys too, lined up with their chosen partner. The girls curtsied and twirled, the guys bowed and held out their hands, the two lines slowly walking toward one another, the girls spinning, their arms held above their heads, the guys marching forward in unison. Sam looked like he was having the time of his life, and Vicky actually smiled slightly at just how uncomfortable Shane looked. Emily and Haley looked right at home, and Vicky had to admit that Abigail did know how to dance...

It soon ended, not that long of a ceremony, and Lewis thanked everyone for coming. Vicky decided she should probably leave now before she made things too much more awkward for everyone. She made her way around the north side toward the east, avoiding the gaze of as many people as she could, then found Pierre having made his way back to his stall just before she did. "Hey Vicky- Are you okay?" His smile shifted as he saw her expression to a look of concern.

"I'm fine, just allergies." She didn't like lying but how do you tell someone 'oh yeah I asked your daughter out without meaning to and she said no'?

"Oh, okay! Maybe you should go see Harvey?"

"Yeah, I'll go do that once he's back at his shop. Can I pick up my scarecrow?"

"Definitely!" He handed the thing over to her, and Vicky thanked him before quickly making her way out of the clearing and back toward Pelican Town and her farm... there was a pillow on her bed with her name on it, and she could already feel tears welling up now that she didn't have to hide them.


	14. Starting Summer the Exhausting Way

It took Victoria several days to even want to leave her farm after embarrassing herself in front of her friends, even calling Lewis to her home to pick up the produce of her farm instead of going to Pierre's shop to drop it off herself. It got her several concerned looks from Lewis the first time, but it seemed he understood after a while... perhaps someone in town had told him what happened. She'd gotten texts and mail from the others, of course, Pierre sent a letter asking if she was feeling okay and if Harvey had a look at her, Abigail texted her at least once a day... But those she was just ignoring, at least for now. She read them, but she hadn't answered. She just didn't know what to say.

Even Sebastian and Sam had sent her a couple messages, wondering if she was okay. Sebastian even said he was sorry and that he wouldn't have said yes if he'd known. Apparently Vicky had been hiding her attraction to Abigail so well that nobody in town had realized... Though she was sure that it was going to be common knowledge before too long. She supposed she'd have to go out and face people eventually... and sure enough when Summer rolled around she found she'd have to do it sooner than she wanted. Perhaps as some kind of odd quirk of the Valley's magic, or maybe the seeds she bought, she wasn't sure, as soon as the first day of summer hit, every single plant that she'd put in the ground for Spring withered and dried up overnight. It got her cursing more than a little bit, considering she'd put a fair amount of money into seeds that were now dead.

However, she still had a decent amount of money saved up, the Valley had been good to her this spring, so she knew she'd be able to get a good amount of seeds for the new season. Hanging out around her farm exclusively over the last few days had another benefit that her farm was now almost completely cleared- when she was feeling particularly upset she'd just go throw herself at her work until she was completely exhausted, meaning she'd gotten a monstrous amount of the farm cleared. However, she'd decided to leave one area more or less 'natural, and she'd even put up a makeshift fence of logs around it to help rope it off.

Scellia had sat next to her while she was doing it, too, giving the farmer curious looks all the while, until she finally decided to explain herself. "I thought... Since you're living here, and the forest and nature took such good care of the farm..." She glanced back at the ground, churned up here or there from where she'd pulled up trees and roots and stones... Some of the bigger boulders and older trees still lay here or there, her tools simply not up to the task of getting rid of them. She'd have to upgrade to pull those out of the ground. "I thought I'd repay that a little bit. Leave a corner of the farm in it's more natural state. Show that I didn't want nature completely gone, that ..." She shrugged. "Maybe I'm just 'borrowing' the land until I have to pass it to someone else."

The little dragon seemed to smile at that, and when Vicky finished talking she scampered off into the underbrush in a streak of black and purple. Vicky could hear her off in the distance, rustles, and noises of plants and sticks as the dragon ran about, and that at least put a smile on her face.

Regardless, it was now summer, and she needed a new crop of seeds. She'd tilled out a nice big area of the farm for her to plant on, using what felt like almost a third of the available space. She'd even discovered a small lake that she hadn't even known was there down near the south of the farm, putting the little pond on the east side of the property to shame. She still had some of the west side of the farm to clear out, especially in the north, with the section she'd decided to leave untamed down in the southwest corner. She pulled her bike out of the shed and strapped a backpack she'd ordered from Pierre's shop around her shoulders, then finally resolved herself to head off into town. She'd have to do it sooner or later, and if she wanted to get a good, strong start on the season, sooner was better.

She put in a detour to the Community Center first, deciding to check on what the Junimo wanted that she could provide in the summer. More foraging, she found, so she'd have to take a few days and go wander around to see what had sprung up in the new season, as well as a list about a mile long of different crops and fruits. She also found they wanted some particularly high-value crops... though she was a bit miffed to learn that she'd already lost the chance to give them the parsnips they wanted for that. She did have some normal ones for a different bundle they wanted, but the real high-quality stuff would have to wait for next year.

Her list now made, and now including a fair amount of fertilizer to give the crops the best chance to grow up big and strong and healthy, she headed off to the store to buy her seeds. When she walked through the door, the bell jangling happily, she was greeted with a shout from Pierre. "Vicky! Gosh, it's good to see you! I was hoping you'd come around and..." He paused for a moment as he looked her over, and he continued more quietly than before. "It's good to see you today. Are you here for Summer Seeds? We have a real good selection." He gestured to the seeds inside of the case of his counter, and Vicky couldn't help but smile at his salesmanship.

"That's right. I even made a list. Do you have all these?" She laid the paper down on the counter, facing him, and took the backpack off of her back, starting to unzip it so that she could fit all the seed packets inside of it.

Pierre rubbed at his chin, a finger sliding down the list as he considered it. "You know... I have most of this, except for these." He tapped a finger against one item, and when Vicky leaned down she could see him pointing at 'Red Cabbage'. "The only place I could order these from was Joja, and, well I wasn't about to do that. I'll see what I can do, but I really can't promise anything. I have the rest, though!" He perked up a little bit and smiled at the friendly farmer.

"Well, then the rest will have to do. I need about sixty of each." She placed the backpack on the counter, expecting him to start dumping seeds in.

"S-sixty! Gosh, Vicky... Gonna leave any seeds for anyone else?" He grinned as he reached under the counter and pulled out boxes of seeds, not even bothering with the display, and started counting out seeds. "I'll be a minute, why don't you go say hi to Caroline? She's missed you since the festival."

Vicky nodded, then took her money pouch from her belt and left it on the counter next to him. "Here. I trust you to not take anything you're not owed." She gave Pierre a smile, which he returned with a nod, and then she ventured off into the rest of the house. She was honestly a little surprised that Abigail hadn't come out to see her... but maybe the purple-haired beauty was as embarrassed over the whole thing as she was. Her door to her room was even closed as Vicky walked by. It wasn't hard to find where Caroline was, considering the sounds of a sink running and dishes clinking wafted toward her from the kitchen.

"Oh! Hey, Vicky." Caroline turned toward her for a moment before returning to her dishes. It looked like she was cleaning up after breakfast. "You know, I was just thinking of you! I've been taking care of the little farming plot we have out behind the house, and then I realized we haven't seen you in a few days. Are you okay? Pierre said something about having to go see Harvey?"

"Oh, I'm fine. It was nothing... just a, uh..." She tried to think of a decent excuse for a moment. "I guess it was just an allergic reaction to something out in that clearing. Eyes watering, face puffing up. It got better after I got home, so I never went to go see Harvey."

The woman glanced back at her for a moment, eyes searching Vicky's face, then she shrugged. "Well, good thing it all worked out then. Abby's not home, she went up to the mountains."

"Oh? What for?" Vicky leaned against the wall while she talked, just resting for the moment.

"Dunno! She brings her flute sometimes. Goes and plays music by the lake, I think."

Vicky smiled at that, the thought of Abigail playing the flute by the lake did not at all seem out of character for her friend. It also just might be a cover for her wanting to go to the Adventurer's Guild... She knew that they were up there, though Vicky had hardly been out that way other than to explore the valley a bit back in spring. She was definitely not the combat type.

She was about to say something else when she heard Pierre calling from the shop proper, and she wished Caroline a good day before heading back that way. Her backpack was practically overflowing with seeds, and her coin purse was significantly lighter when she picked it back up.

"Sixty of everything, just like you wanted. I had to put some of the seeds in the back back pocket, and you had just about enough to cover everything." He held out his fingers as he listed them off. "Blueberries, Melons, Hops, Peppers, Corn, Radishes, Wheat... I even threw in some sunflower seeds and a couple of flower starters. Just to help brighten up the farm."

Vicky smiled, letting out a quiet 'oof' as she picked up her backpack... This was going to be awkward to get back to the farm in one piece. "Thanks, Pierre! Now just have to get these back to the farm and get to work... Big plans for this season!"

"Definitely! And hey, Vicky... If you make some beer or ale with the hops and wheat..." He leaned over and held a hand to his cheek, masking his voice. "You'll give me a free sample, won't you?"

Vicky raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Oh!" He stood up straight again. "I thought you knew? You can put wheat and hops in kegs and it'll make beer and ale. It's worth a lot more than the crops on their own, too."

Vicky tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. I could have sworn..." He looked around for a bit, then with a little 'ah' he pulled out an older version of his pricing list that hung over his counter- a smaller one, probably back from the early days of the store. "See?" He gestured to where 'wheat' and 'hops' were listed, then to the 'pale ale' and 'beer' listings. It was almost three times as much, especially for the ale. "The prices are a bit out of date, but the ratio's almost the same."

"Well! I might just have to think about doing that... Where do I get a keg?"

"You know, I'm not sure." Pierre tapped at his chin. "I bet Robin would know. Why not pay her a visit?"

"Alright, I'll definitely do that." She hefted her backpack again, trying to get used to the weight as she put it on her back. "Thanks for all your help, Pierre."

He gave her a friendly wave as she headed out. "Certainly! See you around!"

The trip back to her farm was a bit harder than the trip into town with how heavy her backpack was, and she wasn't expecting just how badly it threw off her sense of balance, either... But that was nothing when it came to the work of getting all the seeds in the ground.

Vicky had known that it would be an uphill battle planting everything, that's why she'd planned out the farm and tilled the ground first, but she hadn't expected just how difficult it was going to actually be. Planting each seed then watering it by hand, having to run back to the pond every few rows... by the time she was a quarter done she was already exhausted. Even when Scellia reappeared at her side and took it upon herself to run back and forth with Vicky's watering can, refilling it, even using her tail to jab holes in the ground to plant the seeds in, it was still a huge undertaking, and Vicky was certain she'd bitten off more than she could chew.

She'd wanted to stagger the crops, not put too much of one thing in one area, but between having to put up a trellis for the hops and tomatoes, spacing things out so there was room to grow, it was just so much work... By the time she was finally finished, panting on the ground from how worn out she was, the last few fields were just blocks of crops in three by three squares. She'd never felt more tired in her life. Even though it had been a marathon, not a sprint, she still felt like she'd run from town to her farm and back again about six times in the span of an hour! She was completely beat. By the time she crawled into bed, sore and aching and honestly dirty because she hadn't bothered to shower she was so tired, she was really looking forward to the morning when she'd wake up refreshed and ready for the next day.

She was in for a surprise. When she woke up, it seemed she'd pushed herself so far that even the valley's magic, or Scellia's or whatever it was wasn't enough to get her back into tiptop shape, because she was still horrifically groggy. Her arms and legs and her abs all ached from crawling around on the ground, and she still felt fuzzy and fatigued. She hardly had the energy to go outside and weed all of her crops, and when she finally finished watering everything, she sprawled out across her porch, trying to cool off and collect her thoughts.

Vicky hadn't even noticed that Lewis had arrived until he leaned over her and looked down at her, a concerned look on his face. "Vicky? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She managed to say after a moment of collecting herself. She sat up with a soft groan and reached over for the glass of water she'd gotten from her kitchen. She didn't know how long she'd been laying there because while the water was still cool, all her ice had melted.

"You don't look so fine." He turned and looked over her farm with a little bit of a smile, but when he turned back to her it had disappeared. "Your farm looks great, but you can't kill yourself over it."

"It'll be alright, I promise..." She let out a little sigh and drank her water, but she couldn't help but notice Lewis' disapproving look. Vicky sighed, long and quiet, and finally looked up at him. "Okay. It's not fine. I planted too much, it's too much work, but I can't go back on it now. Almost all the money I have is out in those fields. I have to take care of it all or I'm back to square one."

Lewis nodded, then put his hand on his chin, rubbing at his mustache for a few moments. "Maybe you should go see Clint."

"What for?"

"Well, I..." Lewis smiled sheepishly. "I asked him if he could upgrade your tools. He's been drawing up plans for some new ones for about a week now, all he needs is materials from you. He's also been working on something I think you'll like."

"And what's that, then?" Vicky sat up and leaned herself against the wall of her house so she could look up at Lewis more comfortably.

"Well, he knew that you would want to make the farm bigger eventually. I had a little conversation with him the other day about it while I was collecting his business taxes. Anyway, he's been designing a sprinkler system you can use on your farm. It'll take care of watering the plants for you and save a fair amount of work. Like bigger, mechanized farms have, but..." He grinned and shrugged. "A little more home grown."

Vicky tilted her head. "Really? I didn't think him the type."

Lewis grinned. "There's a lot more to most of the people in this town than you'd think by just looking at them on the surface, Vicky. You'd be surprised." She was immediately reminded of something Abigail had said when they first met, how her parents just saw her as their daughter, and she felt a little ashamed for assuming anything about the people in Pelican Town. "He's a quiet sort, but incredibly smart, and great with that blacksmithing hammer of his. Go see him. I'm sure it'll do you some good."

Vicky pursed her lips and gave a nod. "Alright... Help me up?" She glanced toward Lewis' truck and gave a sheepish grin. "And maybe a ride into town? I'm beat."

He smiled and extended a hand. "I can do that. Throw your bike in the back though, just in case you have to come home on your own."

Lewis dropped her off right in front of Clint's house, and she pulled her bike from the back of his truck with a whole heap of protests from the muscles in her shoulders and back. She leaned her bike against the doorframe of his blacksmithing shop, then made her way inside. She was greeted by the slam of hammer on an anvil and a heat she hadn't expected, even in the middle of summer, along with the noise of his furnace roaring away. He looked up when she entered, giving her a wave of his hand. "Hey, Vicky!" His voice was far louder than it needed to be, but she imagined his hearing was still ringing with hammer blows.

"Lewis said to come by?" When he held a hand to his ear and yelled back a 'what?', Vicky raised her voice. "Lewis said to see you!"

"Oh! Right..." As he made his way over to his counter, his voice lowered, maybe the ringing finally disappearing. "It's about the tools, right?"

"That's right. He said you could make me some upgrades." She leaned herself against the counter, glad that they were almost back at a normal conversational level. Shouting made her abs hurt. "The tools you made me are definitely still working, but I would not at all be against the idea of upgrading to something better."

He nodded, then reached under the counter and pulled out a hoe that looked brand-spanking-new. There was even a maker's mark on the blade. "I was working on these when you walked in. A bigger farm, a few miles back up the road, ordered some of these for their workers. They wanted some axes too, for clearing trees and the like, but I haven't done those yet." He glanced up at her, the somewhat-chubby Blacksmith's face still glistening with sweat. "While I was working on them I got to thinking."

Vicky was definitely interested now, this guy clearly knew his way around farm tools.

"If I made the blade a little bigger, they could actually till up a bigger area at once. It's a bit more work, but if you know what you're doing it would pay off by being faster and easier in the long run. Problem is, it would need to be stronger metal to handle the extra forces involved. They want all of theirs in bronze since it's a little cheaper than iron or steel."

"I thought my tools were made of iron, did you splurge?"

"Well... not exactly. Yours are cast iron. Crude, simple, but effective. I made it out of stock I had laying around that I wasn't doing anything with. I'm talking about high-quality stainless or high carbon. Not sure which yet. I need to do some testing. Expensive, but worth it, I think." He smiled, rolling the tools in his hands. "I've heard what you've been doing around town. Helping Pierre, injecting some life back into the town. Believe it or not, the crops you sell are good for everyone."

"Really?" Vicky leaned a little closer. "What do you mean?"

Clint smiled and placed the hoe back on the counter. "Well, Pierre's got the nicest crops for about a hundred miles in his store right now. You haven't seen it because you've been cooped up in your farm, but he's had more customers than ever. Sure, some of them go shop at Joja after... But he's making a killing on the produce from your farm. And he was bragging in the Saloon last night about how many seeds you bought."

Vicky's face flushed slightly. "You heard about that? News travels fast..."

He nodded, giving her an even bigger smile. "Those hoes I'm working on? They wanted tools that I made." He puffed out his chest a bit. "Because my tools are what's used on your farm."

Vicky blinked and stood up straight. "Really?"

"Absolutely. You may not realize it, Vicky, but your grandpa was a minor celebrity back in the day. People would come from miles around just to buy his produce. And now you've got the farm running again. Tourists are even coming back to the town. There were a few of them at the flower festival, even."

Vicky must not've noticed them because she was too busy focusing on the dancing and, well... What happened after. "I had no idea!"

"Gus even has a few people stopping by every couple of nights just to enjoy the 'atmosphere' at the bar." He reached out and clapped a hand to Vicky's shoulder, making her wince. "Just keep doing what you're doing. And I want to help you do that. So if you bring me some iron- and I mean good stuff, like what they used to pull out of the mines north of town- I'll make you new tools, with my new designs. I'll need a bit of cash, just to cover the lost time I could be working on other projects, but I'll give you a discount. Custom tools aren't cheap. But I promise they'll be the best you can get made by human hands."

Vicky grinned at that. "That sounds awesome. But how am I going to get the iron?"

"Go talk to the Adventurer's Guild. When I mentioned you might need new tools-" Vicky flushed, apparently she was a topic of conversation even when she was being a hermit, "- they said they'd be more than happy to find someone to escort you down into the mines."

"Can do..." Vicky hesitated for a moment. "Lewis said something about sprinklers?"

Clint's eyebrows vanished into his hair, still slicked to his forehead with sweat. "Right!" He vanished into the back room of his shop, reappearing a few moments later with a few pieces of bright blue engineer's paper. "When I heard how much you were ramping up the farm, I knew you'd need something to help you take care of it all. And I know you have that big lake out on the farm, right?"

Vicky nodded. "I didn't even know about it until a few days ago. The farm was so overrun."

"People in town used to actually go swimming there in the summer, a few years ago." He leaned close and whispered to her. "Do you think me and Emily could go there? Maybe for a date?" He actually blushed as he asked, like he was embarrassed, and Vicky grinned.

"You and Emily...?"

"Well." He shifted and looked down at his counter. "Not really. But, I mean..." He shook his head. "It was a stupid question."

"No, it wasn't. You can definitely use the lake. I even left some trees around it for shade."

He smiled up at her, then turned back to his plans. "Well, there's this little pump here- I can run an electrical line to it- and it feeds into these pipes. There are sprinkler heads scattered along them, and I can fit the pipes into whatever shape you want. That way it covers all of your fields."

Vicky was slightly amazed at just how much of this he'd planned out in such a short time. "This is a lot more than just simple blacksmithing work..." She gave a very surprised look toward Clint.

"Well..." He grinned sheepishly. "I'm not -just- a blacksmith. When someone in town needs something repaired, I'm the one they come to. I've had to learn to fix and make a whole lot of things. I do still need to outsource a little bit, like with this pump- I'll have to order some of the parts- but I can put everything together."

"How much would all this cost?"

"Depends on the sprinklers you want. I could make some cheap ones, water a smaller area. But I'd really recommend going with the good ones." He gestured to some little designs drawn up in the corner of the paper. "But I'd need gold for those."

"Gold? Why?"

"Some of the parts are smaller and hard to repair. I can make an alloy with gold that's very water resistant, so it won't corrode, but holds up enough inside of the sprinkler that it shouldn't need replacing. Not in your lifetime, anyway."

"Alright. So gold and... what else?"

"Quartz, believe it or not. I didn't understand it myself, at first, but you can bond Quartz and gold with a bit of iron at high temperatures and it makes a very good compound for this kind of work. I need iron for the body of the sprinkler anyway, so you can just bring me some of that too."

Vicky nodded, then pushed herself up from the counter. "Jeeze. I guess I need to go to the adventurer's guild sooner rather than later, huh?"

Clint beamed, then looked up at her with a smile. "So you'll do it?"

"Oh yeah. Watering everything on the farm's been kicking my ass the last few days. I need something like that if I'm ever going to have time and energy to get anything else done."

Clint smiled nice and wide, then held out a hand in a thumbs-up. "Great. I'll hash out the rest of the plans and double check everything. As soon as you bring me materials, I can get started."

Vicky nodded once more, then headed off toward the door of his shop. "I'll catch up with you as soon as I can, okay?"

Clint waved as she left, and Vicky hopped up on her bike with a quiet sigh. The mountain was far away and she was already sore... This would not be fun at all.


	15. Mountain Dreams

While the mountain wasn't incredibly far away from Clint's shop, it was almost all uphill from there and Vicky was already tired, so it took her far longer than she thought it would to finally arrive. To the point that it was already almost dark when she finally kicked her bike over against the wall and walked up to the door, her shoulders slumped. "Hello? Anyone home?" She knocked on the door a few times, trying to get someone's attention... She didn't even know if there was anyone inside the building.

On her third round of knocking, someone finally opened the door, and she was greeted by an extremely gruff-looking old man wearing an eyepatch, his hair and goatee both silver, face wrinkled with age. "What do you want?"

Vicky was slightly taken aback, she hadn't been greeted like that since the last time she tried to talk to Shane. "My name's Victoria. I need something out of the mines, I was told you could help."

"Yeah? What do you need out of 'em?" He placed a hand on his hip while he talked to her, his other arm hidden under a cloak of some kind.

"I need materials. Ores. I can't afford to have them shipped, Clint said there's still ores down in the mine that can be taken back up." She was getting a little frustrated with this guy's gruff attitude, but she didn't much have a choice. He knew the mines, so she needed him.

He looked her up and down, eye roaming her form, though she could tell it wasn't lecherous or something like that, he was simply appraising her. After about a minute, he shook his head. "I can't let you. You won't make it."

"What are you talking about I won't make it?"

"There are monsters down there, girlie. They start off small, little slimes and whatnot, but they get bigger. Tougher. You aren't the type that can fight them off." He gave a single little nod, then started to close the door.

"But- wait for a second! I have to get into the mines!" Vicky reached out and tried to stop him closing the door, but he was clearly far stronger than she was.

"Then you better find someone I think can handle themselves." He shoved the door shut, leaving Vicky standing outside, dumbfounded.

"Well, fuck."

The trip down the mountain was at least easier than the trip up, considering she was now going downhill instead of uphill. All she really had to do was ride the brakes and keep her balance and gravity took care of everything else for her. She only knew one person in town who was even interested in the mines, and that particular person was someone she was not exactly excited to go talk to at the moment. She needed what was in the mines, though, so she figured she should probably at least go say hello...

She pulled up short along the lake between the mountain and the town, looking out over the water. She could see Haley in the distance snapping photos, and when Vicky stuck up a hand to wave she at least returned it before going back to her camera. Vicky continued along her way, taking her time while riding along the lake. It was honestly a beautiful area, and if she wasn't always so busy on her farm she might come up here more often. She found herself humming along with some melody that managed to spring up into her head, tilting her head this way and that while she sung along.

Then she realized that she wasn't the only one. She blinked and stopped, tilting her head to the side as she listened. There was music coming out over the waters of the lake... that must've been where she heard the melody she was humming and why it sprung up into her mind. But who would- She remembered what Caroline had said earlier about Abigail and her flute. It must be her!

She could feel her heart skip a beat at the thought of seeing Abigail again, even while it fell into her stomach at the thought of seeing Abigail again. It was a very strange set of conflicting emotions. But... She needed someone to help her get into the mines. The guy at the Adventurer's Guild had made it clear she wasn't getting in, but maybe he'd think differently about Abigail. She began working her way closer to the music, which seemed to be coming from the lake itself.

Vicky spotted a plank bridge heading out toward an island on the lake, then another plank bridge connecting that one to another island that was almost out in the center of the lake. If Vicky was a betting woman, that's where she'd bet Abigail would be. She leaned her bike up against a nearby tree, not wanting to risk trying to cross a bunch of planks on it, since she didn't want to go for a swim tonight. The bridge itself was... if not sturdy, at least strong enough to walk across. The planks bowed slightly under her weight, but seemed able to hold her up well enough. They didn't dip down into the water, anyway, so she felt at least reasonably safe.

When she arrived on the first island, she could tell she would have to go on to the second one. The music was definitely louder here, but it wasn't coming from this island itself. The second bridge was, thankfully, a bit sturdier than the first, and she didn't worry at all as she crossed it. The music was definitely coming from here, though it seemed to be on the other side of the island. Vicky pushed through a bit of underbrush, and sure enough she spotted Abigail on the far side.

The woman was playing her flute, eyes closed as she was engrossed in the music. Enchanting melodies floated out across the water as the purple-haired woman danced, her feet kicking up sand as she spun and moved. Vicky almost forgot why she'd come here at all, her face lighting up with a smile as she watched the subject of her affections look so carefree and happy playing her music. She wanted to wait a while, to listen longer, but... well, first off, she felt somewhat creepy basically spying on Abby from a bush, and secondly it was getting pretty late. She cleared her throat.

Abigail stopped all at once, whirling around to find the source of the noise, only to see Vicky poking her head out of the bush. "Vicky!" She clutched her flute to her chest, her cheeks gaining a rosy hue. "What are you doing out here?" She frowned slightly. "And how long were you there?"

"Just a few seconds or so." She didn't know exactly how long it'd been, but no longer than a minute. "I came out here to find you."

"What for? How'd you even know I was here?" Abigail frowned a little more, her expression suspicious.

Vicky was a little sad that she didn't seem particularly happy to see the farmer here, but she supposed the other day was still bothering both of them. "It's kind of a long story."

"Go on then."

Vicky sighed, then began. "Alright. I bought seeds from your dad, and while he was ringing them up, I went and talked to your mom. She said you were probably out here playing your flute. I thought that was neat but I didn't think much of it. Then I had to go see Clint because my farm is getting too big to take care of all on my own and he said he could make me sprinklers. But I need materials to make the sprinklers with, and he said the mines had what I needed. Then when I tried to go into the Adventurer's Guild, the old guy there-" Vicky was cut off for a second.

"His name is Marlon."

"Whatever." She waved a hand. "He said I couldn't go into the mines because he didn't think I could make it, and he told me to find-" Vicky stopped herself short, giving Abigail an incredulous look. "You know his name? He didn't even introduce himself to me."

Abigail pulled her flute a little more tightly against herself, looking defensive. "Of course I do! I've lived in town my whole life. Besides, we've talked."

Vicky should have assumed that Abigail would have at least known his name, but the way she'd snapped it off when Vicky just called him 'the old guy' seemed defensive of him. "Talked? About going down into the mines?"

Abby hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. When I was younger. I haven't been up there in years, but I used to sneak away and come up here. He caught me trying to get into the mines once."

Vicky grinned a little bit, then stepped a little closer to her friend. "Look, the other day was awkward, okay?"

"It was, yeah." Abigail frowned again, then let out a soft sigh and relaxed. "I'm sorry, Vicky. I had no idea." She paused, then lowered her arms, holding her flute in one hand. "I didn't mean to seem... upset with you or something when you got here, either. It's nice to see you." She turned her back on Vicky, looking out over the water.

Vicky walked up to stand next to her. From here they could see Haley on the far shore, as well as a broken bridge a little south of the Adventurer's Guild, which was lit up with lights at the moment, leading to an area Vicky had never been. She put her hands in her pockets, just standing at her friend's side.

"My dad and I had a big fight this morning." Abigail finally spoke, though she kept her gaze out over the water.

"What happened?"

"Mom asked me to come help her make breakfast and I complained. I just wanted to sleep. He got mad at me, said I needed to learn to cook if I was ever going to find a husband."

Vicky turned her gaze over to her friend and this time it was her turn to frown. "That's awful. How could he think like that? What year does he think it is?"

"I don't know if he means it that way." Abigail glanced to her side at Vicky. "He's just worried that because I'm... you know, weird, I'm going to end up an old spinster or something. He's always been like that."

"It's still a shitty thing to say."

"I know. And I told him as much. We were yelling at each other until my mom asked us to stop. She looked like she was going to cry." Abigail sighed, then slowly lowered herself to sit on the sand, her flute across her knees. "I come up here sometimes to play music and relax. I don't have to think about things back in town when I'm here." She smiled slightly and turned her gaze more fully to Vicky. "I used to do that down at your farm, too. Now it's just the lake."

Vicky chuckled softly. "You still can, you know. I'm not going to stop you." She picked up a leaf as she sat down next to Abigail, starting to shred it in her lap. "I left a little patch of the farm wild. Scellia really likes it, she was scampering around in there earlier."

"You did? Why?"

"Dunno. I guess I just felt like... Nature cared for the farm after my grandfather died. In its own way. Made sure it was too inhospitable for someone to come along and develop the land, but not so tangled that I couldn't clear it out. And the soil there is amazing. Years of decay and everything else, I guess. Rich like you wouldn't believe." Abigail laughed, which of course made Vicky perk up slightly. "What?"

"It's just funny. You're talking like you've been farming here for years. And it's been... what, a couple of months?"

"Around that, yeah." It was Vicky's turn to get defensive, frowning slightly. "That's not a bad thing, right?"

"No, of course not. I just thought it was funny..." Abigail paused for a moment, then looked out over the lake again. "I really am sorry about the dance. If I'd known..."

"What? You wouldn't have asked Sebastian?"

Abigail's feet twitched slightly, kicking little rows into the sand. "I don't know. I've always asked him. It's... like a tradition at this point. I didn't know you liked me or anything, so it was just... really surprising. I didn't know what to say, and then you seemed so upset..." She glanced over toward Vicky, watching where the farmer had resumed shredding leaves in her lap. "I thought you were really upset at me. You didn't answer any of my texts, either."

"Yeah. Maybe that was a little stupid." Vicky laughed once, at herself more than anything. "I was just... embarrassed. Lewis said maybe I should go ask someone to dance. Being the new girl in town and everything, I thought he was just being nice... I really only realized once I asked you what it meant. Basically kind of... asking you out, almost. I wasn't thinking."

"He did that on purpose, probably. Maybe trying to see if you liked anyone in town." Abigail's feet kicked at the sand again. "That's why people are paired up the way they are. At least nowadays, anyway."

"Really? I didn't pay much attention."

Abigail laughed once. "I can imagine why. But yeah... I dance with Sebastian because..." She paused, then simply moved on. "Penny dances with Sam because they dated back in school, though they're just friends these days. Haley dances with Alex because they've been off and on again since they were little kids. Emily dances with Shane because... well, nobody else wanted to, and they're at least friends."

"Ouch."

"Well, that's what you get for being an asshole." Abigail smirked a bit, then continued. "Maru dances with Harvey because Demetrius asked them to. He wants them to... you know. A doctor and a girl who's probably going to be a famous astrophysicist or something someday. He wants only the best for her. And then Leah and Elliot have been sorta-dating ever since he moved to town."

"Sorta-dating?"

"Well, I mean, he's gorgeous, isn't he?"

Vicky laughed. "You think he's pretty!"

Abigail frowned. "He is! And, well, he really liked Leah. He thinks she's 'romantic', living next to the river, a struggling artist, she forages the land for food..." She shrugged. "They're cute together, anyway."

"I had no idea everyone was paired off. Or, well... used to be."

Abigail nodded. "When you live in a town this small and the dating pool is as tiny as it is, that tends to happen."

Vicky hesitated for a moment. "So how long were you and Sebastian..."

"I don't..." Abigail sighed, then glanced to Vicky again. "Almost five years, I think."

"Shit, really?" Vicky's brows drew up. "I didn't realize it had been that long."

"The first three were just... friends. Mostly. I think we sort of fell into and out of attraction with each other a few times. Then we made it official like two years ago like I told you that night... You know the rest."

"I know why you don't want to talk about it. It's rough."

"Yeah. But it happens." Abigail started to push herself up to her feet. "I think I'm going to head back home. Before my parents get too worried."

Well, that was sudden. "Hey, wait, before you leave." Vicky quickly stood back up, scattering leaf-fragments every which way.

"Yeah?"

"Look, I need what's down in the mines. And the old- Marlon, he won't let me in. He said I needed to find someone who he thought could defend themselves." Vicky paused, letting what she was telling her friend sink in.

Abigail's eyebrow raised, though she didn't do much else. "Go on."

"Well, I was sorta..." Vicky sighed, her hands gesturing uselessly in front of herself. "I was hoping you'd... help me out. You're the only person I know who wants to go down in the mines, everyone else is either busy or doesn't want to, I'm pretty sure-"

"Have you asked them?"

"Well, no. Damnit!" Vicky frowned, clenching her hands near her hips. "Will you please help me? You're the only one I can think of."

Abigail tried to look neutral, but she couldn't completely hide the smile on her face. "I'll think about it... Okay, maybe." She paused a moment more, Vicky staring her in the face. "Alright! Fine."

Vicky cheered, throwing her hands up in the air, and startled a bird out of a nearby tree.

"Tomorrow, though. We'll go up there tomorrow. It's too late tonight, it's already dark."

"Fine, it's a date then," Vicky smirked and fingergun'd Abigail with a wink.

"No, it's not a date." Abigail started to walk off, then glanced back at Vicky with a grin. "And you look stupid when you do that."

Vicky deflated, letting out a little 'huh.' "I didn't think it looked stupid. I thought it was funny."

She quickly followed off after her friend, needing to get back home before it got too late.

The next morning dawned bright and early, and blissfully Vicky was not nearly as sore as she was the other morning, the magic of the Valley able to get her back into tip-top shape. The vast majority of her morning was spent with her crops, keeping them watered, weeding them with Scellia's help, and generally making sure they were healthy and happy. She'd put some fertilizer in with the ones she needed real high-quality samples of, hopefully, they'd grow up big and strong.

Pierre had also sent her over the schematics for making kegs, suggesting that the sooner she got Robin to start working the sooner he could kick back in his living room and enjoy a local-brewed beer. She was amused by his enthusiasm, and she had to admit that she really needed to go see Robin anyway. She was pretty sure that her roof was leaking, and when she started selling some of her summer crop she'd actually have the money to pay to have her house upgraded. She'd like to have a modern house, or at least one built up to modern standards.

As soon as she was done with all her crops she texted Abigail, telling her that she was heading up to the mountain. She was starting to really, really look forward to today. She might actually make some progress on her sprinklers, and then she wouldn't have to spend hours each morning watering crops. Hopefully, Marlon would let them in.


	16. The Mines

Victoria arrived back at the Adventurer's Guild before Abigail did, though she knew that Abigail didn't have a bike so it wasn't entirely surprising. She'd brought along her pickaxe just in case they did manage to get into the mines... She'd love to start collecting ore even if she wasn't sure how she was going to get it all back to Clint's. If she wanted to keep bringing all her produce to Pierre herself and the ore from the mine to Clint, she might have to upgrade to something better soon... She wondered if anyone around town had or knew where to buy an old used truck. While she was thinking about possibilities for the future, Abigail finally arrived, and Vicky walked over to greet her with a hug.

Abby smiled, but shrugged off the hug, just giving Vicky a fist bump instead. "Let's see what he thinks, shall we?" Abigail was wearing a vest with the arms cut off and a t-shirt under that, as well as some nice, sturdy jeans and boots... Vicky was almost surprised to see that she owned a pair of jeans and boots, but she supposed even Abby had to get out and do yard work from time to time.

Slightly disappointed at not getting her hug, Vicky nodded and turned to the door instead, starting to knock. Just like last time, it took a few rounds for anyone to actually open up the door, and when she did she was met by the same gruff "What do you want?" as last time... Though his expression changed when he realized there were two of them.

"Abigail." He said to her with a little nod of his head.

"Marlon." She smiled up at him. "We would like to get into the mines. For real this time."

He frowned and scratched at his chin with his hand, looking the two of them over, though his attention was mostly focused on Abigail this time. "Fine, I 'spose. I'd let you in on your own, Abby. You know that. I'm sure you can handle yourself in there." He hooked his thumb toward Vicky. "I'll let her in if you promise to keep her safe."

Abigail flushed slightly, then gave a nod. "Alright. I can do that."

Marlon nodded a few times, then gestured with a hand. "Come on in, I'm not sending you in there with your fists."

Abby looked to Vicky and gave a bright smile. She was finally getting to go into the mines! She hurried into the guild, Vicky following behind, the farmer shutting the door behind them.

"Now while there are monsters down there I'm sure you two can handle yourselves if you stick together." He turned and glanced back at Vicky somewhat pointedly, making her frown. "Here." He reached behind the countertop and pulled free a dusty-looking old sword to hand to Abigail. "It's seen better days but it'll serve. You manage to get down about ten levels and I'll give you something better."

Vicky could practically hear a choir coming from Abigail's direction as the sword was placed into her hands, the purple-haired woman staring at it like it was the best thing in the world. She couldn't help but smile as she watched her friend's face and expressions... It seemed like Abigail was finally getting to join the Adventurer's Guild after all. "What should we look out for?"

"Bats, slimes, the occasional bug." He raised his hand above the counter a bit, showing the size of something. "Real big bugs."

Abigail gripped the sword and held it close to herself. "Spiders!?"

"No, no spiders. Grubs and big flies."

Abigail visibly relaxed with a sigh... Vicky supposed she must be arachnophobic. "Okay, good."

"None of them are out to actually kill you. They want your equipment and whatever goodies you might be carrying. But they can still hurt you real good." He gestured to his eye with one hand. "Be careful. You're in there too long and we don't hear anything from you and we're gonna come looking, understand? Nobody dies in the mines on my watch."

Vicky and Abigail nodded, letting out a quiet little 'yes sir'.

He put his hand on his hip, then looked to Vicky. "I'm still not sure about letting you in." When she nodded, he turned his attention back to Abigail. "If you both make it back after the ten floors, which should take you most of the day, then I will make you both official members of the Adventurer's Guild." He glanced back toward Vicky. "Yes, even you."

Vicky was certain she could hear Abigail 'squee'ing quietly under her breath, the woman's hands gripping the hilt of her new sword tightly.

"Membership allows you to purchase equipment and sell loot back here at the guild. We're small but we're loyal. You do well and we'll reward you. Understand?" He gave them both an appraising look, then nodded once he was sure they'd heard him. He swept his arm out in front of himself. "Well? Get going."

Abigail ran out of the guild with uncharacteristic glee, and Vicky was sure that she'd already be down the mines and running slimes through before she could even get there. Marlon appeared at the door as Vicky started walking off, calling her back with a 'hey!'. He tossed her a key on a lanyard. "You'll need that to get in. Hit the big red button next to the elevator as you go down. It activates it on that floor, it's how we're going to track how far you've gotten."

Vicky wrapped the key around her wrist and gave him a thumbs up, which he returned with a smirk before closing the door and disappearing back into the guild. She made her way over to the entrance of the mines to find Abigail trying to force the door open. "Hey, let me." Vicky stuck the key in the lock and turned it with a heavy 'click', then Abigail was finally able to get the giant thing to actually open up and allow them inside.

The whole place was choked with dust... Vicky could hear weird noises coming from a collapsed section off to the right, and there was even an old mine cart track off to the left, though it looked like it hadn't been used in decades. There was an old elevator near the back of the room just like Marlon had said with a bunch of buttons next to it, though only the button for '0' was lit up at the moment. Vicky pressed it, and with a tired old 'ding!' the door creaked open.

"Well, that's not exactly confidence-inspiring..." Vicky pursed her lips as Abigail followed her into the elevator... It was actually much bigger than she expected it to be. There was a caged section off to one side that looked like something should be inside of it... Vicky brushed the dust off of a nearby label. "Ore chute. Oh, hey!" She gestured Abigail over, pointing at it. "Look, here's how we can get the ore up and out of the mines."

"Shouldn't there be a basket or something?" Abigail got her head up close to the cage so she could look down the chute but she pulled her head back with a shiver, suggesting it was probably just a drop straight down.

"Maybe it's on one of the lower floors?" Victoria gave a little shrug.

"How do we get down? Only the '0' floor is lit up here."

"Maybe there's a ladder somewhere. Let's keep looking." Vicky stepped out of the elevator, shuddering a bit at the ominous creaks and whines from the old equipment and metal... She wasn't entirely sure if she trusted that thing just yet.

"The buttons go all the way to 120, how big is this place?" Abigail whistled quietly, then joined Vicky back in the main room. It didn't take the two of them very long to find a ladder leading down into the dark, though Vicky could see some light coming from below. "Where does the power for this place come from?"

"The same place as the rest of the town."

Vicky blinked, then looked to Abigail. "And that is?"

"There's a hydroelectric dam further up the mountain range and river from here that provides power to the whole town. This place is probably wired to the main." Abigail joined Vicky at peering down the ladder, then gave a little shrug. She looked nervous, but also like she was trying to put on a brave front for her friend. "Well? I guess we go on... We won't make any progress otherwise, and I suppose it's time to finally put all that practice into... well, practice, right?" She gave Vicky an unsure smile then began to climb down.

Vicky followed soon after Abigail, climbing her way down into the dim light below. Even as she climbed she could hear odd squishy noises, though they seemed to be far away. When the two of them emerged, they were in a large room much like the one above, though there were boulders and rocks scattered around across the floor, whereas the one above had been clean. There were sandy patches as well, the light coming from some of those super-long-lasting lights you'd see in places like military bases that only had to be replaced once every fifty years or something. Vicky didn't know what they were called, she was just glad they still worked.

This first floor didn't seem to have anything particularly threatening on it, though she could hear the squishing sound a little louder down here. "Oh, Abby, look." Vicky wandered off toward one side of the room, prompting Abigail to jog up ahead to stay in front and keep a lookout for anything strange. There was another elevator down here and Vicky pressed the red button on the control panel. It clicked over with a hum and a buzz, the light above the metal plaque with a '1' on it ticking on. "I guess this is active now... and look." Vicky walked to the side, where a large metal hopper rested in the chute they'd seen before. "This must be the ore chute." There was even a green button next to it that Vicky assumed was 'up' and a red one that she assumed was 'down'.

"Should we put something in it and see if it works?", Abby suggested.

"That's actually not a bad idea." Vicky began looking around for something big enough to really test it with, but small enough she could get it in. "Here, this one." Vicky hefted her pickaxe and gave the rock a solid smack along a flat face, causing it to split into several smaller pieces. She quickly began ferrying the chunks of rock over to the chute and dumping them in, Abigail helping out. When they'd filled it with as much rock as they could fit, Vicky pressed the green button. The whole thing screeched to life with a noise that Vicky hadn't been expecting, and she stepped away so fast she almost tripped over some other rocks. There was a deep rumble from somewhere within the mines as the thing began to cart the rock upward, Vicky venturing forward enough to look up the chute to see where it was going. It ventured up, past the elevator on the first floor, and disappeared around a bend in its track. "Well... I guess we hope it works now."

Abigail nodded, then started off back into the floor they were on. "Do we look for a way down?"

"If we're going to get to the tenth floor before the day's over, probably. I haven't seen anything yet but that doesn't mean it's not here." Vicky followed along more or less behind her friend, trying to keep an eye out for anything interesting.

"Oh, look!" Abigail rushed over to a rock sitting at an odd angle and tugged it aside with a grunt, revealing a somewhat-crushed ladder downward. She pretty much immediately started heading down- the squishy sound was even louder down there than up here- and there didn't seem to be very much interesting about this floor anyway.

The squishing seemed to be coming from very close indeed when they emerged down the ladder and Vicky could even see something moving around off to their left. She gently tapped Abby's shoulder, the woman holding up the sword she'd been given defensively. "Look over there!", Vicky whispered as she gestured off in the direction she'd seen the thing. It was green and oddly shiny even in the dim light those military fixtures gave off down here.

"That must be a slime... I just realized, how do we kill a slime with a sword?"

Vicky gave a shrug and an 'iunno', giving Abigail's shoulder a cheeky little shrug. "Go protect me, my warrior princess!", she whispered with a giggle.

"Oh, shut up.", Abigail hissed back, but she quickly made her way over to the thing. It was almost cute when it turned and realized they were there, bouncing around with that weird squishy noise they'd heard the whole time. There was even a face on it, of sorts, that sort of squashed and stretched as the whole thing moved... Abigail even looked hesitant to hurt it, though that changed real quick when the thing surged forward and took a swipe at her with some kind of pseudopod. Even Vicky's heart skipped a few beats when the thing took a swing at Abby, though she was quick to smack it with the sword she'd been given... Though it took a couple more quick hits to actually get a reaction.

The thing just kind of... recoiled when she swung at it, the sword making wet splats against the surface of the thing. "Abby! Use the edge!" It looked like she'd been hitting it with the flat... At least she seemed to know which end the pointy bit was?

Abby grumbled something about 'harder than it looks' and stabbed the thing, that having the desired effect. It deflated all at once, some of the green goo it was made of spurting out over Abigail's shoes. "Oh... gross!"

"Did you kill it?" Vicky wandered over, looking over Abigail's shoulders. Where had once been a slime was now just a green-colored puddle that was no longer moving.

"I think I did?" She turned to Vicky, her expression quickly growing into a smile. "I squished a monster!" She jumped up and down and actually wrapped her arms around Vicky, thankfully making sure her sword wasn't jabbing her friend in the back.

Slightly surprised, Vicky smiled and hugged the purple-haired woman back all the same, grinning nice and wide. "Great! Now we just have to go down the next eight floors."

"Right. Shall we go then? I'm excited. Maybe I CAN actually do this." Abigail quickly wandered off to start searching for the next floor down.

"I'm sure you'll do fine!"

The next few floors passed in a blur, most of it boring searching for the exit to the next floor, interspersed with acts of random violence whenever a slime reared its head. That's all they'd spotted so far, though on the sixth floor down they finally ran into something that Vicky thought was copper or at least some other kind of metal. It gleamed in a rock stuck to/in the wall off to one side, a dull sort of... well, copper color. "Do you think this is anything we can use? It looks kinda like metal to me."

"That looks... weird." Abigail frowned a little bit as she moved over next to it. "Isn't copper like... green? Or blue?"

"I dunno. There's a lot of stuff in this Valley that doesn't make any sense. Let me take a whack at it." She quite literally took a whack at it, too, smacking the rocks with her pick. They broke away relatively easily in a few swings, sending chunks of the copper-looking stuff rattling across the floor. While she worked, Vicky looked at Abigail. "So why- huff- do they make you use a sword down here anyway? Wouldn't a gun be- argh- easier?"

"They're not allowed down here." Abigail was carting some of the stuff back and forth. Sure enough, it looked like metal, though even Vicky was suspicious about how much it just... looked like chunks of metal that could actually be used as-is with a little work. "Too much noise, too much of a chance of shrapnel, too easy to accidentally cause a cave in."

"I guess that makes sense." Vicky huffed as she'd mined out what she thought was all or at least most of what she'd been trying to get at, then started to help Abigail get everything back to where the chute was. Vicky pressed the red button, hoping it did what she thought and would bring the cart back down here where they needed it. It certainly started making a hell of a lot of noise, that was for sure.

Sure enough, after a couple of minutes of waiting and listening to the thing grind on, the chute finally arrived. Vicky and Abigail loaded as much stuff as they could into it since it'd reappeared empty, meaning it'd dumped out the rocks they'd put into it before... somewhere. She supposed she'd figure it out when they got back topside. Once the thing was full, the two of them took a minute to rest, then hit the green button and started to look for the way down while the cart was grinding its way back up the shaft.

They managed to progress another couple of floors, hitting the elevator button on each one, without much incident. They ran into their first bug on floor 9, though Abigail was starting to get the hang of that sword of hers and she was able to get rid of it in short order. It helped that it didn't seem to realize they were there at all, just buzzing back and forth. They even found a couple of interesting gems along the way that Vicky had stuck into her backpack. One was white-looking and spiky, and another was brown and diamond-shaped, giving off a weird... sort-of-magical energy that both of them had picked up on. She figured she'd give it to the wizard to look at, though she remembered seeing something just like it in the community center too.

One the slimes they'd killed had stayed more or less intact and had congealed in an odd way, and just since it was so strange Vicky had picked that up too, though she'd been questioning her sanity the whole time. They'd even managed to kill a bat along the way, and Abigail had pointed out she'd seen a poster a while back where the Wizard was asking for bat wings for something, so Vicky had picked that up too.

When they finally arrived down on floor ten, their goal of the day, a quick check of her phone revealed that it was well on toward evening, and Vicky was feeling decidedly worn out. She wasn't even surprised to see a red and gold chest sitting on the floor, though she didn't bother to go try to open it just yet. She just wanted to sit down and have a rest for a while.

Abigail seemed to be of the same mindset, setting her slime and bug-guts covered sword down next to her and plopping down alongside Vicky, letting her head fall back against the wall.

Vicky grinned slightly and glanced over at her friend. "Is it what you hoped for?"

Abigail laughed at that, brushing sweat and grime out of and off of her face, some of the hair slathered across her forehead back behind an ear, and turned to look at Vicky, holding out a fist. "It's been amazing. We have to do this again."

Vicky grinned from ear to ear and bumped her fist against Abby's. "Oh, you bet... Any excuse to spend time with you is fine with me." She paused after a few moments, then turned her attention back to Abigail. "You don't mind me... you know, hitting on you and stuff, do you? If it's awkward and all I can stop, I just figure since it's more or less out in the open between us..."

Abigail waved a hand and let her head fall back against the wall. "It's an ego boost, do whatever what you want."

"Sweet!" Vicky said with a little laugh, and with her breath returned she finally pushed herself up to her feet and wandered over to the chest. She nudged it open with a foot since she was too tired to actually bend over and open it the proper way, though she had to do so anyway since all that was inside was an old, age-yellowed piece of paper.

Abigail wandered over around the time that Vicky was picking it up, trying to see what it was. Vicky read it out once she was close enough to hear. "Congratulations on reaching floor 10. Bring this paper up to the guild to receive your license and a choice of new, rugged footwear to protect your feet. You'll need it."

"Well, that doesn't sound ominous at all." Abigail frowned a bit and leaned on her sword as she looked it over. "But it seems like we're the first ones to come down here in a while if the paper looks that old. Seems like if you tried to fold it it'd fall apart."

Vicky nodded, then carefully lowered it back down into the chest and shut the lid back over on top of it. "Let's head back up, yeah? We need to figure out where that stuff we sent up came out at and get you officially enrolled in the Adventurer's Guild." Vicky grinned and gave Abigail's arm a little punch, drawing a soft 'ow' from her friend.

"I'm excited. But also worried, a bit." Abigail frowned as she called the elevator down, leaving the two of them to stand as they waited for it to arrive.

"Worried? Why are you worried?" Vicky raised a brow, watching her.

"Well, I just don't know what my family's going to think. I don't know if mom really... understands, and you know what my dad thinks of all this." Abigail leaned on her sword again, almost like a cane. "I guess we'll see. I've finally gotten what I want." She grinned at Vicky. "I'm not stopping now. No fucking way."

Vicky grinned and reached out, giving Abby a fist bump again. "Excellent. I think we should make this a weekly thing. If not more often. Clint needs a lot of metal from me for things. And you get to live out your dream."

Abigail nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me!"

The elevator dinged as it finally arrived and the two of them climbed in to begin to trip back up topside.


End file.
